European Challenge Cup: Ospreys 39-15 Castres

Castres' Bastien Guillemin is pushed into touch by the Ospreys defence

Ospreys cruised to a 39-15 bonus-point win over Castres at the Liberty Stadium to get their European Challenge Cup campaign off to a flying start.

Wales hooker Sam Parry rumbled over twice after Shaun Venter's opening try as they built a 25-3 interval lead.

Dan Evans' score bagged the bonus and Luke Morgan touched down in the final move, Stephen Myler adding 14 points.

Castres' second-half fightback produced tries from Kevin Kornath and Adrien Amans.

Ospreys saw captain Justin Tipuric withdraw before kick-off with a hip injury suffered on Wales duty, with Morgan Morris coming in at open-side flanker and Olly Cracknell added to the bench, while Dan Lydiate led the team.

They were already without Wales skipper Alun Wyn Jones who was injured in the Autumn Nations Cup win over Italy.

That left Ospreys with George North, Parry - making his 100th appearance for the Welsh region - and sub Nicky Smith as their only returning internationals.

Castres also lost their scheduled captain Ma'ama Vaipula ahead of the start, with Dorian Clerc starting at eight and Hugo Hermet coming onto the bench, with Daniel Kotze captain.

The much-changed French side came out firing with their lively winger Bastien Guillemin close at the corner inside a minute, but the first quarter produced just two Myler penalties to one from Thomas Fortunel.

Ospreys sprung into life with a North half-break starting an attack finished off by Venter after 21 minutes.

With the home side going through the gears, Castres wing Armand Batlle was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on and Parry took advantage of a 10-man driving maul to score.

He repeated the trick from a simple line-out drive in the final move of the half and Myler's two conversions made it 25-3 at the break.

But Castres came out with renewed purpose and flanker Kornath burrowed over after forward pressure on 53 minutes, Fortunel converting.

Ospreys finally broke out to seal the bonus point as full-back Evans skated down the touchline after good work from ever-lively wing Mat Protheroe, who was forced off after taking a heavy tackle.

With the result sealed, replacement wingers Amans and Morgan exchanged tries in the final minutes, while Lydiate was named man of the match for his efforts in a dominant Ospreys pack.

Ospreys next travel to Worcester on Saturday, 19 December.

Ospreys head coach Toby Booth told BBC Sport Wales:

"Five points is very useful, we can gain a lot of confidence and we hadn't played for a long time as well so there was some rust in the tank.

"We wanted to start well in this competition and we didn't have it all our own way, it's given us a good test and the young players will take confidence from this.

"It was great having Sam Parry back from Wales, a lot's happened to him in the last few months (winning his first four caps) and I'm delighted for him. We spoke about making his 100th game memorable, getting a couple of tries in a bonus-point win certainly does that.

"Tips (Justin Tipuric) got a little bang when he was with Wales, nothing too serious but it stirred up again in training and it wasn't worth the risk, hopefully he'll be right for next week."

Ospreys: D Evans; G North, T Thomas-Wheeler, K Williams, M Protheroe; S Myler, S Venter; G Thomas, S Parry, M Fia, L Ashley, R Davies, W Griffiths, M Morris, D Lydiate (capt).

Replacements: I Phillips, N Smith, T Botha, A Beard, O Cracknell, M Aubrey, S Williams, L Morgan.

Castres: C Clavières; B Guillemin, F Vialelle, V Botitu, A Batlle; T Fortunel, J Fernandez; J Nostadt, K Firmin, D Kotze (capt), R Pieterse, H N'Kinsi, S Onambele, K Kornath, D Clerc.

Replacements: P Colonna, W De Benedittis, S Dube, F Vanverberghe, H Hermet, B Bourgier, L Le Brun, A Amans.

Referee: Tom Foley (England)

Assistant referees: Craig Evans (Wales), Simon Rees (Wales)

TMO: Sean Brickell (Wales).