Newport outside-half Shane Howarth was the hero of Rodney Parade, kicking his seventh and final penalty in injury time with the last action of the game.

The penalty was met with a deafening roar of approval and relief from the 7,000-strong crowd.

Incredibly, just moments before Newport seemed destined for a shock defeat after 14-man Castres snapped up what seemed to be the winning try.

Replacement back-row forward Thierry Labrousse was credited with a touchdown, although there was a huge pile of bodies over the line.

Gregor Townsend, who was generally off form with his kicking, could not convert and that gave Newport the opportunity to pull the match out of the fire.

Castres never looked likely winners, but they still rocked the Welsh side by scoring three tries to nil.

Centre Kelly Rolleston stormed over for a touchdown on the half hour which Townsend converted, while right wing Marc Biboulet also grabbed another try in the 79th minute.

Howarth was Newport's saviour with his excellent goal-kicking throughout, but they had another giant in their South African number eight skipper Gary Teichmann who was deservedly named Heineken man-of-the-match.

Cooler

Castres seemed out of the running completely when their replacement lock Thierry Pourdet was sent to the sin-bin in the 74th minute.

But Newport's hopes of recording an easy win fell apart when the Frenchmen snapped up two late tries to set up such a dramatic finish.

Disappointed

Howarth claimed he was disappointed after kicking the last-minute goal. He said:

"Of course I was pleased with the victory, but no-one likes winning a game on penalties when your opponents score three tries.

"We really will have to buck up next week when we travel to Castres or we could get a real problem.

"I think we will need to raise our game by at least 80% if we are to get a result."

Referee

But Howarth refused to be drawn on commenting on some questionable refereeing decisions by Italian Giovanni Morandin.

"I really don't think the players should criticise referees. After all it was exactly the same for Castres and I'm sure they would have had a number of disappointments too.

"To be fair to them they scored a couple of cracking tries and that was a really big wake-up call for us.

"We've got to work hard in the coming week to achieve a win next time."

Scorers - Newport: Pens: Howarth 7

Castres: Tries: Biboulet, Rolleston, Labrousse. Con: Townsend. Pen: Townsend

Teams

Newport: M Pini, M Mostyn, M Watkins, A Marinos, B Breeze, S Howarth, D Edwards, R Snow, P Young, A Garvey, S Rawailui, I Gough, A Popham, J Forster, G Teichmann
Replacements: C Jones, J Richards, G Taylor, P Buxton, E Lewis, J Pritchard, D Burn

Castres: Mola, Biboulet, Rolleston, Delmotte, Garrigues, Townsend, Albouy, Toussaint, Batut, Reggiardo, Laluque, Davidson, Costes, Diaz, Taussac
Replacements: D Dima, Bemazet, Bourdet, Labrousse, Larkin, Plisson, Seguier

Referee: G Morandin (Italy)

Att: 7,118