Jonathan Thomas was sent off on Saturday night as the Neath-Swansea Ospreys, lost to Castres 38-17 at Stade Pierre Antoine in the Heineken Cup Pool four.

The Wales forward was dismissed for punching Mauricio Reggiardo in the 83rd minute. The Ospreys were overrun by four Castres tries. The French side built a 20-0 lead in 27 minutes and forced the visitors into retreat with their driving maul. The fly-half Yann Delaigue controlled the game scoring three conversions, two penalties and a drop-goal.

Shane Byrne's early try gave Leinster a good start away to the Italian side Treviso in Pool two, but they did not make the result certain until the second half when further scores from the Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll and his international team-mate Shane Horgan helped them to a 25-9 win.

Leinster were frustrated by a brave Treviso defence but regained control when the lock Malcolm O'Kelly returned after a spell in the sin-bin. Treviso's points all came from Marius Goosen.

In the European Challenge Cup Saracens beat Bayonne 24-21, Robbie Kydd scoring 16 points, including a try, after the London side had fallen 14 points behind in the first half.

Sale won 31-22 away against Catania, beating the Sicilian minnows with tries from Chris Mayor, Chris Rhys-Jones and Mark Cueto.

London Irish overcame Auch and left south-west France with an impressive 20-18 win. The wing Justin Bishop's 66th-minute try proved decisive after an influential performance from Mike Catt playing at fly-half.

Worcester, making their debut in any form of European competition, scored four tries to defeat Brive 29-15 at Sixways. Leeds were denied victory in Grenoble by a last-minute penalty from the boot of Maxime Suarez that made the score 9-9.