Castres made to pay by rampant Northampton

The home side only led 12-0 after 60 minutes through four penalties by Stephen Myler, but then blew the French side away with five tries in the final quarter to avenge last week’s defeat in the reverse fixture.

Mallinder said: “I’m pleased with our performance.

“I was disappointed last week, we attacked well but our discipline and defence was poor. At half-time I told them not to get frustrated and we needed to be a little more accurate.”

Mallinder introduced key players Lee Dickson and Sione Tonga’uiha on the hour and they made important contributions in breaking down the Castres rearguard.

Mallinder added: “The subs made a considerable impactand all credit to them as we needed to keep their pack moving around.”

Northampton have no hope of progressing further in the Heineken Cup, but still face games against Munster and Scarlets in January.

“That win gives us a chance to make it into the Amlin Challenge Cup but we will need a couple of good wins against those tough sides to have a chance of getting there,” Mallinder added.

“We are focusing on our next three league games against Bath, Newcastle and Harlequins and are aiming for three victories.”

Harlequins claimed a shock 31-24 victory at four-time champions Toulouse to throw Pool Six wide open.

Mike Brown scored two tries, either side of Joe Gray’s first-half effort, and Nick Evans kicked 16 points as Harlequins became the first team to win a European tie at Toulouse in almost three years.

Harlequins led 15-10 at half-time but were forced to survive a second-half onslaught as well as the loss of sin-binned captain Nick Easter for the final 10 minutes.

Despite that, Evans kicked two late penalties after Brown’s second try to claim a famous win while Toulouse were left to rue 12 missed points from the boot of Luke McAlister.

Scrum-half Jean-Marc Doussain scored a try among his 15 points though that was not enough for Toulouse, who remain top of Pool Six, but now only a point ahead of Harlequins and four clear of Gloucester.

Munster withstood a spirited comeback from Scarlets before emerging with their fourth successive pool win.

James Coughlan’s second-half try, allied to four penalties from Ronan O’Gara, kept the province’s European challenge on the rails at Thomond Park.

Scarlets hit back with a converted try from Ken Owens and had they converted more of their chances, they may have had enough momentum in the final quarter to spring a surprise result.

But Nigel Davies’s young side could not make use of their greater share of possession and streetwise Munster have now tightened their grip on Pool One ahead of the two final rounds.