Falatea’s late double swings it for Castres

Castres ............ 30 Bristol .............. 21

TAPU Falatea’s late try double helped Castres edge out Pat Lam’s Bristol outfit in an entertaining preseason encounter on Thursday.

Bristol led midway through the second period, thanks to tries from Dan Thomas, Mat Protheroe and Toby Fricker, but were pegged back by Falatea’s late surge.

After an early penalty from Ben Lapeyre for the hosts, Bristol posted the first try at Stade de la Balmette when flanker Thomas exploited a gap to go under the posts for a converted score.

Protheroe added a quickfire second soon after when the pacy full-back took advantage of Harry Randall’s smart break to accelerate over the try-line.

On the stroke of halftime, Castres reduced the deficit to 10-14, courtesy of Camille Gérondeau’s closerange effort.

Following the interval, another Lapeyre penalty drew the French side to within a point, before Ian Madigan released Fricker with a fizzing pass to add Bristol’s third of the evening.

But, with a quarter of an hour left on the clock, the powerful Falatea touched down twice, first from the back of a close-range scrum and then from a bulldozing break inside Bristol’s 22.

An 80th minute Lapeyre penalty sealed the 30-21 win for Castres, but Lam and his coaching team will be buoyed by an encouraging first hit out for the Bears.

Director of rugby Lam said: “This trip gave us an opportunity to integrate some young guys into the environment and the likes of Harry Ascherl, Ioan Lloyd and Jack Bates will take a lot from the experience.”