Beauxis stars for three-try Toulouse

Editor

Toulouse made it two wins from two in the Heineken Cup after dodging a potential banana skin in beating Connacht 36-10.

Toulouse made it two victories from two in the Heineken Cup after they evaded a potential banana skin in beating Connacht 36-10 in Galway.

The four-time winners managed to overcome the sold-out crowd and the team it was supporting but only managed to cross for three tries on the night.

9,120 had come out to watch at the Sportsground but nine quick-fire points from Lionel Beauxis made life difficult from the outset for the Irish.

The fly-half was the star of the show for Toulouse as he claimed three conversions, four penalties and two drop-goals, with Jean Bouilhou, Yannick Nyanga and a penalty try their five-pointers.

Connacht's first points came from the boot of fly-half Miah Nikora, when blindside flanker Mike McCarthy was sitting in the sin-bin, but Beauxis landed a further two penalties to give the visitors a 22-3 lead at the break. The job was half done.

A penalty try, converted by Beauxis, increased the French heavyweights' advantage after the break before the hosts benefited from a similar decision from match referee Greg Garner.

Replacement back-row forward Yannick Nyanga completed the comprehensive victory.

The scorers:

For Connacht:
Try: Penalty
Con: Nikora
Pen: Nikora

For Toulouse:
Tries: Bouilhou, Nyanga, Penalty
Con: Beauxis 3
Pen: Beauxis 4
Drop: Beauxis

Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy, 14 Tiernan O'Halloran, 13 Eoin Griffin, 12 Dave McSharry, 11 Brian Tuohy, 10 Miah Nikor, 9 Paul O'Donohoe, 8 George Naoupu, 7 John Muldoon, 6 Mike McCarthy, 5 Dave Gannon, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Rodney Ah You, 2 Adrian Flavin, 1 Brett Wilkinson.
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke, 17 Ronan Loughney, 18 Dylan Rogers, 19 TJ Anderson, 20 Ray Ofisa, 21 Frank Murphy, 22 Niall O'Connor, 23 Henry Fa'afili.

Stade Toulousain: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Maxime Medard, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Vincent Clerc, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Louis Picamoles , 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Yoann Maestri, 4 Grégory Lamboley, 3 Census Johnston, 2 William Servat, 1 Yohan Montes.
Replacements: 16 Gary Botha, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Johnson Falefa, 19 Romain Millo-Chluski, 20 Nicolas Vergallo, 21 Yannick Nyanga, 22 Luke McAlister, 23 Gillian Galan.

Referee: Greg Garner