Edinburgh make European history

Editor

Edinburgh became the first Scottish side to qualify for the Heineken Cup semi-finals on Saturday with a 19-14 win over Toulouse.

Edinburgh became the first Scottish side to qualify for the Heineken Cup semi-finals on Saturday with a 19-14 win over Toulouse in their quarter-final at Murrayfield.

The home side overturned a four-point half time deficit to beat the four-time champions for just the second time in twelve games to set up a semi-final against either Munster or Ulster in Dublin.

The boot of Greig Laidlaw and a titanic defensive effort proved decisive in a momentous victory.

The hosts got off to the perfect start when scrum-half Mike Blair scored in the second minute. Edinburgh profited from Toulouse indecision under a high ball and when Timoci Matanavou failed to handle Laidlaw's bomb, Blair pounced on the loose ball to crash over.

Laidlaw added the conversion but the visitors were quick to reply as Lionel Beauxis opened their account from the kicking tee after four minutes.

The French international fly-half then narrowed the gap to a single point as the Toulouse pack began to impose themselves.

The wheels then came off the Edinburgh bus as Allan Jacobsen and Ross Rennie were shown yellow cards for cynical penalties within two minutes of each other.

Beauxis's third penalty put Toulouse ahead and two minutes later Fijian flyer Matanavou grabbed their only try with a wonderful solo effort to score from 60 metres out, dodging countless tacklers in midfield and then turning on the gas to score his eighth try of this season's competition.

The French side were unable to further profit from their numerical advantage and Laidlaw kept his team in touch just before the interval with a 30 metre drop-goal to leave the scores at 14-10 at half-time.

The tables turned early in the second period when Toulouse hooker William Servat saw yellow for being off-side. Laidlaw found the mark and then added another penalty to put Edinburgh ahead on the 50-minute mark.

The four-time champions had an opportunity to strike back instantly, but Beauxis suffered his third miss of the afternoon.

Toulouse pushed hard in the closing minutes but an 80th-minute penalty from Laidlaw secured an historic victory in front of 37,881 spectators, a record crowd for a quarter-final in Britain.

The scorers:

For Edinburgh:
Try: Blair
Con: Laidlaw
Pens: Laidlaw 3
Drop: Laidlaw

For Toulouse:
Try: Matanavou
Pens: Beauxis 3

Yellow cards: Jacobsen (Edinburgh – 25th min); Rennie (Edinburgh – 27th min); Servat (Toulouse – 45th min)

Edinburgh: 15 Tom Brown, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw (capt), 9 Mike Blair, 8 Netani Talei, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 David Denton, 5 Sean Cox, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Jack Gilding, 19 Stuart McInally, 20 Roddy Grant, 21 Chris Leck, 22 Phil Godman, 23 Jim Thompson.

Toulouse: 15 Yannick Jauzion, 14 Timoci Matanavou, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yann David , 11 Yves Donguy, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Louis Picamoles , 7 Thierry Dusautoir (capt), 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Census Johnston, 2 William Servat, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements: 16 Christopher Tolofua, 17 Daan Human, 18 Yohan Montes, 19 Grégory Lamboley, 20 Jean-Marc Doussain, 21 Clément Poitrenaud, 22 Yannick Nyanga, 23 Gillian Galan,

Venue: Murrayfield, Edinburgh
Referee: Nigel Owens