There’s little doubt that Castres Olympique are the surprise package of this season’s Top 14. Barry Mutuel takes a trip down to Stade Pierre-Antoine to find out more.

More than a few eyebrows were raised in the spring when Laurent Travers and Laurent Labit announced they were leaving Montauban for Castres. As coaches of les Montalbanais, les Laurents transformed the Sapiac club’s fortunes, culminating in qualification to last year’s Heineken Cup. This was a wonderful achievement for a club like Montauban, only sullied by the unfortunate invasion of hordes of one-eyed, holier-than-thou Munstermen.

Castres are everyone’s favourite second team. Perennially capable of upsetting any team on their day, they’d traditionally settle for a top 6 or top 7 finish and were hard to dislike, much like a kindly aunt, or Bill McLaren. They were renowned for playing open, attacking rugby while being vulnerable in defence. Watching a Castres game was normally good entertainment, on and off the pitch – Castres is a proper rugby town in the heart of the Tarn department of Languedoc.

Travers and Labit inherited a team that had to fight for its life just to stay in the Top 14, finishing last season in a precarious 12th place. Their first job was to quickly assess an under-performing bunch of players. Apart from reliable, experienced performers such as metronomic full back Romain Teulet, lively French international scrum-half Sebastien Tillous-Borde, All Black prop Carl Hoeft and giant Samoan international number 8 Joe Tekori, the remainder of the squad was given a radical shake-up.

There were numerous departures, chief amongst them being French captain Lionel Nallet’s move north to join Racing-Metro. Nallet has been an ever present for Les Bleus in recent years, so much so that he played just 12 top-flight games last season. Maybe there was method in the madness. Others to leave included Wallaby international centre Steve Kefu (Wasps), fly half Anthony Lagardere (Dax), promising young French international centre Lionel Mazars (Bayonne), All Black international scrum half Kevin Senio (Clermont), hooker Romain Terrain (Biarritz) and Australian flanker Lei Tomiki (Carcassonne), all first team regulars.

Coming the other way were the cream of Montauban’s squad, including centre Yoan 'Buzz' Audrin, flanker Yannick Cabellero, lock Matthias Rolland and the pick of the bunch, tough-as-teak French international flanker Ibrahim Diarra. Others to arrive included winger Marc Andreu from Toulon, who failed to cross the try line in 18 games last season but already has three tries this season, centre Romain Cabannes (Biarritz) who is already in his eighth season of top flight rugby despite being only 24 years old, rugged South African prop Michael Coetzee (Racing Metro) and highly promising young winger Matthieu Nicolas, who arrived from Bourgoin.

Rounding off an under-the-radar bunch was French international scrum half Alexandre Albouy. Albouy returns to the Stade Pierre-Antoine after a previous successful spell, although the ‘international’ moniker is used in the absolute loosest sense, after his one-minute appearance as a substitute against Italy in the 2002 Six Nations Championship.

Joining them in November should be Bourgoin full back Florian Denos, who looks set to execute an escape clause and join Castres as a 'joker' - mid-season cover for injured squad members. 24-year-old Denos - who started his career at Toulouse - spent three seasons at Bourgoin after a very successful 2005/06 season at Auch, where he scored 12 tries in Pro D2 before representing France in the 2006 under-21 World Cup. Denos will further strengthen the squad, providing tough competition for incumbent Romain Teulet and backup arriere Thomas Bouquié.

A quick look at the revamped squad reveals a tougher, more solid group that’s devoid of star names. This season has seen more consistent, resilient performances. Castres are no longer the soft touch of previous years, preferring to grind out the hard yards than play basketball-type rugby. At present it’s nosebleeds aplenty as Les Castrais sit proudly in second place, with a record of six wins, 1 draw and just two defeats. Their standout performance came on the opening week of the campaign, via a stunning 12-24 win at Biarritz, and they’re currently on a hot streak having lost only one of their last five games.

You can bet your bottom Euro that Les Laurents won’t take their collective pied outre du gaz, so there’s the promise of more to come. Here’s to les bleus et blancs breaking the annual stranglehold of the traditional top five, Toulouse, Paris, Biarritz, USAP and Clermont. Allez CO!