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Castres downed Racing 92 in a thriller this afternoon to reach the Top 14 Final. The small-town side from France’s south-west defeated Racing 92 from Paris 19-14. With it they advance to meet Montpellier in the Top 14 Final next Saturday at the Stade de France.
Castres is a shining light of the traditional French club. They are one of the few remaining ones as big city teams continue to gain increasing power.
Central to Castres’ success, including winning the Top 14 in 2013, has been recruitment. Castres is renowned for being among the smartest at acquiring undervalued players not only in France but anywhere.
Racing 92 is vastly different. Packed with world class names the Parisians were expected to win today’s Semi Final in Lyon. Despite injuries this was very much a case of David vs Goliath.
Castres’ spirit saw them come back from being 14-10 down to win by five points. Scoring fourteen points for Castres was Benjamín Urdapilleta. His points today maintained his superb goal-kicking success rate for 2018 at above 90%.
Urdapilleta won Man of the Match from fly half and was joined by Rodrigo Capó Ortega, a survivor of the 2013 title. The 37-year-old Uruguayan was a first half replacement and would go on to salute the crowd following victory.
Racing 92 also had a South American involved. Scoring the first try for the losing finalists was Juan Imhoff. The Rosario flier crossed for a sensational solo try which saw the 56,272 crowd in Lyon off their feet, screaming with disbelief. It is a contender for try of the year.
