Heineken Champions Cup: Edinburgh win well at Castres to book last-16 place; Stormers beat London Irish, Racing 92 beat Harlequins
Heineken Champions Cup: Edinburgh secure a place in the round of 16 after victory over Castres in France; South Africa's Stormers picked up bonus-point win at London Irish to remain on course for knockouts; Racing 92 beat Harlequins despite being down to 12 men late on
Last Updated: 15/01/23 6:17pm
A round-up of Sunday's Heineken Champions Cup action as Edinburgh booked a last-16 place after victory at Castres, while Stormers won at London Irish and Racing 92 beat Harlequins.
Castres 21-34 Edinburgh
Edinburgh did the double over French side Castres with an impressive 34-21 away win to book their place in the knockout stage.
The Scottish side crossed for four tries through hooker Dave Cherry, No 8 Bill Mata, centre Cameron Hutchison and replacement scrum-half Ben Vellacott for a bonus-point victory.
- La Rochelle break Ulster hearts in final minute; Ospreys, Saracens victorious
- Munster hold on to beat Northampton despite early O'Donoghue red card
- Leinster thrash Gloucester to book last-16 spot; Toulouse do likewise vs Sale
The boot of Blair Kinghorn landed four conversions and two penalties to seal a famous win as they impressively kept Castres scoreless in the second half on French soil.
Mike Blair's Edinburgh side lost their Champions Cup opener to Saracens before beating Castres 31-20 at home and are now through.
London Irish 14-28 Stormers
London Irish's feint hopes of progressing in the Heineken Champions Cup vanished due to a pair of red cards as Stormers ran out 28-14 winners at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Full-back Ben Loader and replacement prop Ciaran Parker were sent off either side of half-time, becoming the fourth and fifth players to receive their marching orders on a weekend of controversy in the competition.
Loader received his marching orders in the 18th minute for a dangerous tackle - Irish head coach Les Kiss said he was "flabbergasted" by the decision - and Parker had been on the pitch for just over a minute when his match was ended by an illegal clear-out.
In addition to the two reds, French referee Ludovic Cayre issued three yellow cards and awarded two penalty tries as the Exiles fell to a third defeat in their three group games.
Predictably enough given their numerical advantage, the impressive Stormers plundered a maximum five-point haul from their visit to London to keep alive their quest to reach the knockout phase.
Racing 92 30-29 Harlequins
Harlequins had victory snatched away from them in dramatic style even though they were playing against 12 Racing 92 players at the time.
The French side, three times runners-up in the Heineken Champions Cup, looked dead and buried when they conceded a penalty try in the 75th minute and lost talisman Finn Russell to a yellow card.
The departure of the Scottish playmaker made it three sin-binnings in as many minutes for the home side and they found themselves behind for the first time in the match at 29-27.
Despite being three men down, they managed to gather the restart and Andre Esterhuizen was penalised for not releasing to give Nolann Le Garrec the chance to step into the goalkicking shoes of Russell and win the match.
He hit the mark from 40 metres and Racing were able to play out the final three minutes to win by a single point.
