Townsend warns Edinburgh of threat from his old club Castres

GREGOR TOWNSEND has warned Edinburgh not to expect a straightforward passage at Castres this weekend because his old team are embroiled in a battle to move clear of the basement zone in French domestic rugby.

Former Scottish cap record holder Townsend, 35, is well aware of the theory that with one or two notable exceptions the French sides are content to qualify for Europe while leaving their best efforts for ensuring survival on the home front.

"I've heard it said that Toulouse and Stade Francais are among the few who really go out to win the Heineken European Cup.

"That would, however, be a very dangerous attitude for Edinburgh to take with them even though Castres have not performed particularly well in the French League where they have lost at home to the likes of Dax, with a win over Montferrand a notable exception to their poor form," explained Townsend.

To put the Dax result in perspective they have just suffered a 12-30 home defeat in the European Challenge Cup by Connacht, regular tail-enders in the Celtic League.

But drawing on his experiences of helping Castres to semi-finals of both the French Championship and the Heineken Cup back at the start of the decade Townsend said: "During two good seasons with Castres I saw three coaches sacked. That's an indication of how demanding things can be.

"Looking back I thought we were the second best team in France the year we lost a semi to Toulouse while reaching the last four in Europe was a first for Castres but still it wasn't enough for some and the coaches paid the price. So, Edinburgh should expect to find a Castres side geared to trying to buy some time for their current coaches and getting their league campaign going at the very least."

It is a measure of Townsend's awareness of the Castres scene that he stayed long enough to remain in their record books today as the club's second highest European Cup points scorer, with 87 points from his 13 appearances.

Indeed, only seven players have represented the club more often in the Northern Hemisphere's blue riband event.

So, Townsend talks with considerable authority, and the good news is that as he continues to cut his teeth in coaching having made the last of his 82 Scotland appearances in 2003 he will be building on his work in the Edinburgh backroom team by travelling across the channel for Saturday's clash.

Undoubtedly, Townsend has a firm handle on what Edinburgh must do in a match both sides must win after the French were also beaten first up, by 11-25 at Wasps while the Scots went down 16-27 to Leinster. "For Edinburgh to lost at home was disappointing and means they must win their remaining games to qualify.

"They can bounce back but it will mean preventing the long range tries that Leinster were able to score while, overall, the tackling has to be much improved.

"Saturday's game was strange because it wasn't at all like the Magners League meetings we have come to expect from the teams; there were a lot of mistakes and if Edinburgh had played well they would have won.

"Whether it was first night nerves remains to be seen but Edinburgh are better than they showed and must keep believing in themselves. If they do that they can win at Castres, a rugby town (population 50,000) but not as strong in terms of desire for rugby as others further south such as Brive and Agen."

Meanwhile, Castres coach Mark McCall is warning his side worked too hard to qualify for the Heineken Cup by finishing fifth last year (currently they are second bottom out of 14) to let slip their opportunity of ensuring future links with the competition lightly.

"We've got some very important French Championship matches coming up and we need to get some momentum built into our season. We need to try and get a win at home against Edinburgh behind us. We'll try and give it everything for the rest of our matches," said McCall who summed up the losing display at Wasps in one word – "fighting".

"We worked very hard last season to get ourselves in a position to play in the Heineken Cup in a match like that against a team like Wasps," said McCall, whose men drew the second half 8-8 after a nervous start in High Wycombe.

The former Ulster mentor also hinted that top players are returning to the Castres cause, adding: "We suffered from a lot of injuries early on in the French season but we were determined to bring the best squad that we could over (to Wasps).

"We didn't have the team that did so well for us last year but we brought the best that we possibly could.

"At 20-3 we could have caved in but we showed a lot of spirit. We were very pleased that we did that.

"We started the season with 15 or 16 of the 32-man squad unavailable, which is more normal for the end of the season than the start. Gradually, they're all coming back and I think one of the reasons we were so blown away physically in the first half was that a lot of our players were playing their first fixtures."