Rugby:Northampton Saints collected their first Heineken Cup win of the season with a 45-0 bonus point success over Castres Olympique at Franklin's Gardens. The defebding champions led 3-0 at the interval with the notable action coming in the final quarter of the match.

The Saints scored five tries to emphasise their superiority over a very poor French side. Stephen Myler kicked the remaining 20 points for the English club. Lee Dickson and Soane Tonga’uiha were introduced by Northampton on the hour in an attempt to give the Saints some attacking variety and it soon paid dividends when Ben Foden and Vasily Artemyev both outflanked the visitors’ defence for tries which Myler converted.

Castres were demoralised and battered from their tackling stint and conceded further tries to Mike Haywood and Greig Tonks and a final one from Foden who ran 50 metres to score. Myler converted two of them.