RYAN SMITH RETURNS FROM SHOULDER INJURY TO LOSS AGAINST CASTRES  13th May 2007

Ryan Smith came off the bench for seventh placed Montauban in their Top 14 clash against eighth placed Castres last weekend. His appearance at 77 minutes at fly half, was the first since a shoulder injury kept him out of action for the last two weeks. Unfortunately, the match was a loss for Montauban as they succumbed 25 - 13 away to Castres.

Montauban scored two tries from Wing Cech at 41 minutes, and Canadian full back Mike Pyke at 61 minutes, against one for Castres. The difference in the match was the metronome like kicking of Romain Teulet who maintained a 100% success rate for kicks at goal. He scored 6 penalty goals and a conversion for twenty points. "We played well, said coach Laurent Travers, but we lack that extra 10% of hard work and concentration which is the difference in getting a win." Castres full back and kicker just kept the Castres team ahead for the whole game.

MONTAUBAN : Duffau (Pyke 56e) ; Cech, Viard, Jahouer, Cassin ; (0) Fauqué (cap) (Smith 77e), (m) Garcia ; Raynaud, Clarkin, Caballero ; Vaïtanaki (Brignoni 50e), Rolland (Sazy 77e) ; Sa, Arganèse (Testa 66e), Henn (Balan 50e).

CASTRES : Teulet ; Milford, Christophers, Marticorena, Carballo ; (0) Mc Intyre, (m) Laussucq ; Bias (Puricelli 51e), Faure (Tabacco 58e), Vosloo ; Nallet (cap), Capo-Ortega (Ghézal 64e) ; Saayman (Attoub 73e), Terrain, Hoeft.