Castres 6 Edinburgh 13: LEINSTER HAVE more than one reason to be happy today following the weekend's results in Pool Two after Castres Olympique, their next opponents, virtually wrote off their European campaign.
While Leinster were racking up a hugely impressive victory over Wasps in Dublin, Edinburgh were giving them a helping hand for qualification with a hard-earned victory at Stade Pierre-Antoine.
Home defeat for Castres struck a hammer blow to their ambitions, following defeat to Wasps the previous week, and rendered their back-to-back ties against Leinster mere sideshows, as alluded to by team manager Alain Gaillard.
"We are already out so the results against Leinster will be academic as far as we are concerned, but we need to concentrate on improving our game for every confrontation," he said.
"There's no doubt that Leinster are going to be really tough opposition. To beat an English team like Wasps as soundly as they did this weekend says a lot about the quality of the side.
"Perhaps they rely more on individual brilliance than some other teams but they can afford to with the quality of players that they have in their squad. They are really quite spoiled for choice in terms of their back line."
Castres took an early lead, courtesy of two penalties from Cameron McIntyre, but the visitors hit back thanks to positive thinking from Mike Blair, a nominee for IRB Player of the Year.
Blair caught Castres napping with a tap penalty, before off-loading to wing Mark Robertson, who still had plenty to do, but stepped past three defenders to claim his first Heineken Cup score and the game's only try.
Chris Paterson added the conversion and two second-half penalties as Edinburgh finally showed a steel edge that suggests they may yet have what it takes to make it out of the pool.
"To come to France and play in such an exciting manner in the first half was tremendous," said coach Andy Robinson. "Then we showed fantastic courage to defend the way we did when they came back at us in the second half.
"Courage was the key and now we're still in this competition."
CASTRES OLYMPIQUE:T Bouquié (A Lagardere 68); L Mazars, S Kefu (R Teulet 43), P Christophers, R Carballo; C McIntyre, K Senio (S Tillous Borde 64); C Hoeft (Y Forestier 73), R Terrain (A Giorgadze 68), L Ducalcon; K Kulemin (I Tekori 48), L Nallet (capt, F Faure 73); S Malonga, R Capo Ortega, D Nell.
EDINBURGH:C Paterson; M Robertson, B Cairns, N De Luca (J Houston 64), S Webster; P Godman (D Blair 70), M Blair (capt); A Jacobsen (G Kerr 56), R Ford (A Kelly 70), G Cross (A Jacobsen 68); C Hamilton (B Gissing 53), J Hamilton; S Newlands, A MacDonald, A Hogg.
Referee:Andrew Small (England).
Attendance:8,600.
