The Osprey's high-flying start to the season ended with a bump in their opening Heineken Cup fixture in an intimidating atmosphere. The runaway Celtic League leaders succumbed to a Castres side bristling with aggression and invention.
Two of their chief tormentors, however, came not from south-west France, but from England. The former Wasps pair Paul Volley and Mark Denney, signed during the summer, each scored a try as the Ospreys were out-muscled and out-thought by their opponents, who also gained a bonus point for scoring four tries. Losing flanker Jonathan Thomas, sent off in injury time for flattening replacement prop Mauricio Reggardio, just rubbed salt in Welsh wounds.
Castres opened the scoring in the seventh minute when former Toulouse fly-half Yann Delaigue kicked an easy penalty as the Ospreys - who were against the wind - struggled to get out of their half. It was no surprise when Castres scored their first try after 19 minutes - and it was a beauty, with the home side stretching the Welsh defence from left to right before centre Mark Denney, who had already featured in the move, crashed over on the left. Delaigue converted.
The former Wasps connection hit the Ospreys again three minutes later when flanker Volley drove over in a similar spot, but the real hero of this try was his back-row colleague Romain Froment. The No6 ran 20 metres through the Ospreys' splintering defence before offloading to the grateful Volley. Again Delaigue converted and Castres already seemed out of reach.
The Ospreys came back quickly, however. A rare mistake by Delaigue gave them a scrum on halfway and a clean break by centre Sonny Parker, plus good support play by industrious number eight Andy Lloyd, allowed prop Duncan Jones to dive over from close range for a try that was neatly converted by Gavin Henson.
Perhaps stung by his error, the Castres fly-half made partial amends in stoppage time with a 30-metre drop goal to make it 23-7 at the interval.
Castres put the result beyond doubt when lovely awareness from the impressive scrum-half Alexandre Albouy put winger Benjamin Lhande over on the left wing just after the break. Henson replied with a penalty, but it was far too late.
After a series of scrums, Castres were awarded a penalty try that Delaigue converted and though Jason Spice scampered over for the Ospreys' second try after 61 minutes, the result was by now never in doubt. The Heineken Cup showed once again it is a different standard from domestic competition.
CASTRES : Mola; Fleming, Dourthe (Raffault 39), Denney, Lhande;
Delaigue (Sadourny 59), Albouy (Morlaes 74); Fitzpatrick (Reggiardo 59), Ledesma (capt) (Arganese 39), Galasso, Barrier (Capo-Ortgea 59),Spanghero,
Froment (Bernard 70), Bias, Volley
NEATH-SWANSEA : Durston; Mustoe, Bishop, Parker, S Williams;
Henson, Spice (A Williams 74); D Jones (P Jasmes 61), B Williams (capt), A Jones (Millward 61), Cockbain, Bateman (Newman 62) Thomas, Lloyd (Bater 40), Pugh.
