The French side certainly came to play and started at a great pace and almost worked skipper Chris Masoe over in the opening move. It took some stern home defence to keep them at bay and a couple of strong midfield bursts from England lock Courtney Lawes to redress the balance.

The first half became a series of missed opportunities for Saints as they fluffed five kicks at goal and surrendered a couple of gilt edged try scoring chances. In fact, both sides left points on the field and it wasn’t until the 21st minute that the scoreboard finally got moving.

It came moments after full back Pierre Bernard’s speculative penalty from five metres inside his own half had fallen short and Castres had conjured up a brilliant blindside attack from a scrum on half-way that ended with a try for lock Iosefa Tekori.

On a night when the kickers from both sides struggled to hit the target, Bernard’s conversion was one of nine of the 14 attempts at goal that went astray. The biggest culprit was local hero Bruce Reihana, who missed with four kicks at goal before handing over to Shane Geraghty – who also fluffed his first kick on the stroke of half-time.

Reihana redeemed himself a little by levelling matters with a 33rd minute try that came on the narrow side of a five metre scrum shortly after Phil Dowson had set-up the promising position by snaffling an over-throw at a Castres line-out.

But the French hit back instantly with a drop goal from outside half Cameron McIntyre that allowed them to go into the interval 8-5 ahead.

Saints coach Jim Mallinder must have said a few harsh words at the break because it took less than a minute for his side to take the lead for the first time. Geraghty cut back to the narrow side after the first ruck of the half and his long pass to Dowson was immediately turned back inside to the fast arriving Foden from full back.

The England star hit the gap on the 22 and ran clean through to score a try which this time Geraghty managed to convert. There was an exchange of penalties on the hour between Bernard and Geraghty and another strike from the Castres full-back cut the gap to a single point with nine minutes left to play.

The game could have gone either way, but Steve Myler stepped up to create a bit more breathing space for the home side with three minutes to go and used the upright to add three more vital points and finally end Castres’ brave effort.