Castres have proud home record and intend to keep it

Jeremy Davidson: Expects to face the best version of Munster.

Friday’s Champions Cup pool match against Munster at Stade Pierre Fabre is win or bust for Castres, the French side’s outgoing head coach Jeremy Davidson admitted.

“We’ve lost two games in a row, so we really have to target this game to stay alive in Europe,” he said. “With the new system, if you win your home games and get a couple of bonus points, you can still qualify.

“We have to win to stay alive in this competition, and we need to get confidence before we go into the Bordeaux game [in the Top 14] the following week, which will be very, very important for us.”

Castres, seventh in the French top flight heading into the first Champions Cup fortnight, have beaten Toulouse, La Rochelle, Racing 92, Stade Francais, Montpellier, and Perpignan to maintain a perfect domestic home record so far this season.

That invincibility at home — in both competitions — is crucial, Davidson insisted, to Castres’ ambitions. “Our objective this year is to finish in the top six, like any year, and get into the [Top 14] playoffs,” he said.

While the French side have a long-standing negative reputation in Europe, they do have knockout phase ambitions — of the Champions Cup, for preference — but even qualifying for the Challenge Cup round-of-16 requires picking up wins in this pool phase.

This won’t be a straightforward challenge. Castres play Bulls at Stade Pierre Fabre in January, and finish their Champions Cup pool phase against Saracens at the StoneX Stadium — while, at the same time, striving to be competitive in the Top 14.

It’s the challenge of all clubs in the competition. “If you get in the Champions Cup you’re going to get very, strong groups with the best teams,” Davidson, who will leave Castres at the end of the season, said. “It’s going to be a tough competition. And the Top 14 week to week is tough. So you’ve just got to concentrate on your performance — especially at home.”

Their Champions Cup challenge got off to a poor start against a clinical Northampton Saints at a Storm Darragh-swept cinch stadium last Saturday. Juarno Augustus scored two of the home side’s six tries, leaving Castres to nurse the wounds of a 38-8 mauling, a week after they had shipped 50 points at Clermont.

“It wasn’t great obviously,” Davidson said. “The weather conditions were very difficult for everyone — horrific wind and rain, which meant it was a very difficult game to manage.

“In the first half they managed to take their chances. We should have ended up scoring a bit more in the first half to go in around the same sort of score — we should have used the wind a bit more in the first half.

“We rested quite a few guys last weekend, in order to give game-time to the rest of our squad and to manage a few niggles and bumps – we had 15 injuries [to deal with].

“I’m not trying to make excuses. We didn’t play to the best of our ability — Northampton were definitely the better team and deserved a large victory.”

Davidson expects to be able to field a stronger side for the must-win game against Munster, saying “a couple” of players who missed the trip to Northampton, including vice-captain Julien Dumora and winger Geoffrey Palis, were available for selection again.

Despite the long Champions Cup history between the two sides Davidson thinks this season’s Munster are something of an unknown quantity.

“They were in a wee bit of turmoil at the start of the season, and had injuries which held them back, I think, along with the Irish players who were away during the international window,” he said.

But, although things are different this year for both clubs, some things will stay the same: “We know that they’ll be coming here full strength to get a win so that they can progress to the knockout stages of the Champions Cup.

“We know that Munster, with that good win even though it was affected by the two red cards, will be coming here to try and get an away win, and ensure that if they win the rest of their games at home they go through to the knockout phase.”

Castres have no illusion about the scale of Friday night’s challenge, then. Even with some players returning, solutions won’t be straightforward. But, in rugby, some things always remain the same. Davidson said his side have to be “a lot more clinical than last week”.

“A lot more clinical and a lot more aggressive with and without the ball. Defensively, we were weak last week. Some guys that hadn’t played in a while fell off tackles. We need to be a lot more aggressive and make sure that we put a big performance in at home.”