Castres can’t be underestimated, warns Reddan

Leinster coach Matt O’Connor spoke last weekend about the need to avoid an "ambush" in Castres in their European Rugby Champions Cup encounter this Sunday and Eoin Reddan knows all too well how best-laid plans can go awry in the Stade Pierre Antoine.

Reddan was in the starting line-up last January when Castres flew into an early 14-0 lead in a game that Leinster simply couldn’t afford to lose, but he still ended up on the winning side.

The same couldn’t be said back in 2009. The Limerick man was still a Wasps player then. Heineken Cup champions only two years before, they found themselves in the south of France in round six needing a bonus point to escape the pool — instead of Leinster, as coincidence would have it.