SUFFER THE WAITING GAME
were well in it at 6 6- 3 down despite barely landing a blow i n the first 40 minutes before Racing delivered the knock-out punches.
Juan Imhoff went over when the Northampton defence was stretched and after soaking up 90 seconds pressure at the start of the second half the Parisians put the game out of reach.
Centre Henry Chavancy hacked a loose ball through which Stephen Myler could not deal with an Imhoff scooted in for his second. Then Burrell was robbed by Benjamin Lapeyre who went over.
George North got one back but when Roberts smashed through the limp defence Northampton’s hopes of a home quarter were rubble. without having to rely on others’ results.”
Leinster coach Matt O’Connor said: “We gave an outstanding display overall with a total management of the first half followed by some second-half lapses.”
Wasps trailed by 14 points at the interval, but it could have been 40 because the Irish side outplayed them in the first half.
In fact they looked angry leaving the field because that superiority was not
Quins quickly found their stride against a Castres side who had lost all five of their earlier European games.
The visitors rejected the chance of easy points with their first kickable penalty of the game 11 minutes in, instead opting to kick to touch five metres from the hosts’ line.
And captain Joe Marler emerged from the bottom of a mess of players following a well-executed trainingground lineout move.
The French side, who have shipped 99 points in their last two games – 49 against Stade Francais in the Top 14 two weeks ago and 50 against Leinster in Europe last weekend – found a way through the Quins’ defence when scrum-half Antoine reflected in the scoreline. Wasps were all over the shop.
Former Springbok back-row Ashley Johnson made unwanted history by becoming the fastest sin-bin victim in European competition.
With just over 10 seconds gone, Kearney soared to collect the kick-off, Johnson tackled him in mid-air and the wing’s game was over, his shoulder encased in ice. Referee Jerome Garces flashed the yellow, as he did Dupont scored under the posts after 20 minutes. Julien Dumora converted to level
But Quins were back in front five minutes later when winger Charlie Walker darted over from close range following another penalty.
An error by the English side then brought Castres level again, with Romain Cabannes diving over.
Castres were reduced to 14 men shortly before halftime when Thomas Combezou was sin-binned for tackling off the ball.
Quins immediately made the most of their advantage, with Danny Care diving over to make it 21-14 to Quins at the break.
Jack Clifford charged over for Quins eight minutes into the second half for their bonus-point score.
Shortly after, winger Remy Grosso became the second Castres player to be sin-binned and replacement Quins prop Mark Lambert made the most of it to score.
Marland Yarde raced over to get the visitors’ sixth a minute later and Johnnie Beattie claimed Castres’ third try with 20 minutes left.
But Quins’ George Lowe wrapped up the scoring at the death, with Nick Evans slotting a sixth conversion. 29 minutes later when prop Lorenzo Cittadini didn’t roll away from a breakdown.
Leinster took advantage with tries by Fergus McFadden and Isaac Boss – both converted by Ian Madigan – and penalties by Madingan and Jimmy Gopperth.
Their former Wallaby lock, Kane Douglas, saw yellow on 39 minutes for a no-arms hit that flattened Johnson. And Goode summed up his team’s first half by hooking a simple penalty. But in the second half, Wasps hammered at Leinster’s defence.
Garces was wrong to disallow Tom Varndell’s 47th-minute try for blocking when Luke Fitzgerald ran into Nathan Hughes. T
Then two penalties were kicked to touch and two line-out drives led to tries for Matt Mullan and Hughes. Goode converted, but the potential winning goal eluded him.