Heineken Cup: Glasgow fall to defeat at Castres after late try
Glasgow fell just short of staging a Heineken Cup upset against Castres as a late try gave the French side a 10-8 win.
Last Updated: 16/12/12 5:17pm
The Warriors led until the closing minutes after John Barclay stole in for a try late in the first half, but after being temporarily reduced to 13 men they could not hold on.
However, after Yannick Caballero had scored what proved to be the winning try, Glasgow had the chance to retake the lead only to see Ruaridh Jackson strike his penalty against the upright.
The victory moves Castres up to second in Pool 4, three points behind Ulster.
The visitors struck first as Peter Horne slotted over a penalty in the second minute but soon after that score was cancelled out by Castres full-back Romain Teulet.
Horne and Teulet then both missed their next attempts, the latter being just short from the halfway line, but otherwise it was Glasgow who looked more likely to break the stalemate.
Castres' Marcel Garvey made a crucial intervention as Sean Lamont tried to play in DTH Van Der Merwe and although the hosts continued to come under pressure, the Warriors seemed unable to make it count and Castres eventually enjoyed a good spell of their own.
But on the stroke of half-time Ryan Wilson seared through the home defence before spinning the ball across to Barclay, whose grounding of the ball was confirmed by the television match official.
Horne's missed conversion meant Glasgow were 8-3 ahead at the interval, and after the break it was Castres who started to press forward with more urgency.
The Warriors hung on admirably but their hopes of resisting a comeback suffered a blow in the 65th minute when lock Tom Ryder was shown the yellow card for an infringement at a lineout.
Castres were somewhat fortunate not to have their own numbers reduced after an apparent stamp by Ibrahim Diarra but it was Glasgow who went down to 13 men when Byron McGuigan was sin-binned.
And that allowed Castres to finally make the breakthrough as Caballero finished off a catch and drive from a five-metre lineout, with Daniel Kirkpatrick crucially adding the extras to make it 10-8 to the hosts.
Glasgow were then dramatically awarded a penalty soon after but Ruaridh Jackson was a coat of paint away from turning the tables again.
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