Castres stun out-of-sorts Leinster

The Irish province could have moved 11 points clear at the top of Pool 2 with a bonus-point win.

However, lowly Castres, who are second-from-bottom in the French Championship, pulled off one of the shocks of this season's competition as Anthony Lagardere kicked them to an inspiring win.

Man-of-the-match Lagardere landed six out of seven penalty attempts, with his sixth and most important success coming 10 minutes from time.

Leinster did muster first half tries from Girvan Dempsey and Jonathan Sexton but despite enjoying a 15-versus-14 advantage when Castres centre Steve Kefu was sin-binned, Michael Cheika's men were outfought.

Castres' morale came into question in the pre-match build-up and they got off to a nightmare start when Dempsey stole in for a fifth-minute try and Jonathan Sexton added a superb conversion from the touchline.

Lagardere's well-struck opening penalty bounced through off the left upright and Castres cut the gap to 7-6 when a Joe Tekori-inspired counter-attack saw Leinster infringe once again.

Lagardere sent over his third penalty success but Leinster snuck back ahead in the 29th minute with a well-executed attack. Luke Fitzgerald punctured the hosts' midfield and strong carries from Jamie Heaslip, Shane Jennings and Simon Keogh helped Sexton crash over to give Leinster a 12-9 lead at the break.

The harsh sin-binning of Kefu for killing the ball close to the posts gave the visitors an ideal chance to steady themselves and Felipe Contepomi duly kicked them into a 15-9 lead.

But Castres forced a series of penalties which Lagardere dispatched, after 60, 65 and 70 minutes. Posting their first European win since last January, Castres defended manfully in the closing stages and a brilliant steal on the deck from Masoe put the final nail in Leinster's coffin.