The Georgian tight head prop was given his marching orders by Welsh referee Ben Whitehouse in the 18^th minute who charging into a ruck and striking Castres lock Thibault Lassale  in the face with his shoulder.

At that stage Castres were leading 8-3 thanks to an early Rory Kockott penalty and a 40 metre interception ruby by the right wing Remi Grosso after he picked off a long, floating pass from Jesse Mogg.

Playing against 14 men for 62 minutes the visitors must have fancied their chances, but they found it difficult to come to terms with the Montpellier scrum and eventually conceded three tries from driving line-outs and saw the home side grab a bonus-point score two minutes from time..

Kockott added a second penalty to make it 11-3, but on the stroke of half-time the home pack drove to the line from a five metre line-out and created an opening on the blindside for Fijian wing Timoci Naguca to barge his way through David Smith for his 11^th European Cup try. Francois Steyn converted off the touchline to make it 11-10 to Castres at the break.

The second half belonged almost entirely to the home side, with their seven man pack magnificent in all aspects. Castres changed their half-backs at the break and their Argentinan No 10 Benjamin Urdapilleta kicked them further ahead with a simple penalty a minute after the re-start.

That was it for Castres, however, and three tries flowed from Jake White’s men as they claimed an unlikely bonus-point to stay within one point of Pool 4 leaders Leinster. Tries two and three came from driving line-outs, flanker Kelian Galletier and hooker Shalva Mamukashvili crossing, and then Naguca created the opening for Nic White to score the vital fourth.

Castres lost replacement back row man Alexandre Bias to a yellow card for the final eight minutes and they will need a massive turn-around next week when they host Montpellier in Round 4.