Why Castres demand respect from Bulls
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Toulouse, Racing 92, Toulon, Stade Francais, La Rochelle and Montpellier are French club teams most South Africans will know because of the many SA players and coaches who have enjoyed so much success in the Top 14 and in EPCR competitions over the past 20 years.
Castres won't be as familiar down south, but the Vodacom Bulls' opponents in Saturday's Investec Champions Cup match demand as much respect as any of the leading French teams.
Castres are five times winners of the Top 14 and any visit to the Stade Pierre-Fabre, named after the former owner Pierre Fabre, is considered one of the toughest venues in France and Europe. Its 12, 300 capacity is the smallest in the Top 14, but a packed Stade Pierre-Fabre makes the noise of 80 000.
It is an intimidating experience for teams who play there every season, and the Bulls will on Saturday night be able to talk first-hand of this experience.
Castres, in the latest Top 14 home outing, beat Pau 23-19 and in December they saw off the challenge of Ireland's Munster 16-14 in an Champions Cup pool match.
Rory Kockott is the most celebrated of South Africans to play out of Castres, with the former Lions and Sharks scrumhalf playing 219 matches from 2011 to 2021, winning the Top 14 title twice and playing 11 times for France between 2014 and 2015, including being selected for the 2015 World Cup.
Former Cheetahs and SA U20 centre Robert Ebersohn is also a South African Castres' favourite, having played 97 matches in an eight-year French club career that started in 2013 with Montpellier (54 matches), took in Castres between 2016 and 2020 and finished in 2021 after 24 matches with Beziers.
It is Kockott, though, who brought the South African to Castres and his performances were a credit to his formative years at the Lions and Sharks, with most of his rugby played out of Durban between 2007 and 2010.
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Kockott evolved his game at Castres and became one of the deadliest goalkickers in the Top 14 and in European competitions. Now 38, he scored 1 297 points at Castres before switching to Stade Francais in 2023, where he played 19 matches.
Kockott's impact on Castres has never been well documented back in South Africa, but it demands a revisit and a belated applause. In 2011, he was influential in Castres making the Top 14 semi-finals, before losing 24-15 to Toulouse.
He was superb in the 2012-13 season and played nearly every match as Castres won the coveted Top 14 title. He scored 13 of 19 points in the final as Castres shocked the star-studded Toulon, who that season had just won the Champions Cup.
Kockott would finish the season as the league's top points scorer (376) and was named Player of the Tournament.
Castres enjoyed a purple patch with Kockott at the peak of his powers and the following season they lost to Toulon in the final.
Kockott and Castres' finest achievement was winning the Top 14 after finishing the regular 2017-18 season in sixth and getting the final play-off qualifying spot. They would beat Toulouse in the quarter-final, Racing 92 in the semi-final and Montpellier in the final.
For perspective, Toulouse had finished the regular season in third, Racing in second and Montpellier in first.
The Bulls surprised many by basing themselves in Toulouse this week and training out of the Toulouse ground as the French giants are preparing to play the Sharks in Durban.
The travel distance from Toulouse to Castres is 77 kilometres by bus and 64 kilometres by train, with the travel time between an hour and an hour and twenty minutes.
The distance may be just over an hour in time, but the two clubs differ in every way by more than an hour and it will take a battling Bulls to be at their very best to win in Castres.
A call this week to Kockott from the Bulls director of rugby Jake White would not be out of place to bring a dose of reality to just how tough it is going to be on Saturday for the South African visitors, who have yet to win in this season's Champions Cup.
Photo: EPCR Rugby
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