Northampton 13 Castres 3

It has been a Heineken Cup campaign to forget for Northampton, and if it peters out here it will have been in a match memorable only for its extraordinary lack of action. Northampton are not quite out of the Heineken Cup yet, clinging on to the last best runners-up spot, if you can have such a thing, courtesy of 10 points in the dying minutes.

And they were as ugly as they come. That late surge earned them a win that nobody deserved, so they now rely on Connacht beating Saracens at Saracens. Connacht are not favourites. So it is likely to be the Amlin Challenge Cup for the Saints.

This was not pleasing on the eye. Even those 10 points at the end were ugly, George Pisi's try at the death was a chargedown and came hot on the heels of a 75th-minute Stephen Myler penalty that had earned Northampton a 6-3 lead.

Northampton set up siege early on, when Ken Pisi hacked on a loose ball. They set up a few attacking scrums. Two penalties followed for the home team, but Dylan Hartley, as has been his wont this season, turned down the points both times. Castres would not yield to the insult, though, and soon the game reverted to a default slugfest in the middle of the field.

It seemed a match that was gasping for some points might have finally got them when Fa’atoina Autagavaia’s latest error, a loose kick straight into touch, resulted in a quick lineout and an apparent try for Remi Grosso. Northampton were spared, though, when the TMO spotted that Brice Dulin had used the wrong ball for the throw-in. But the first half was to prove not entirely pointless. On the stroke of half-time Hartley finally pointed at the posts, and Stephen Myler obliged.

If we were now no longer pointless, we were soon back at all square. Rory Kockott, Northampton’s tormenter in October, came on and more or less straight away kicked a 48-metre penalty.

Guardian Service