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
Comments
mlbp says...
Agreed, Pierre.
Posted 20:19 20th November 2011
pierredelot1 says...
True at Under 21 beauxis was the best young fly in Europe but then took the fateful decision to play for Stade Francais and he put on weight, moved to fullback and lost all his flair and open eyed skills. Just what Les toulousain need, a great fly with open eyes to direct and kick when required not all the time. McCallister there as well so 10 no problem. Just give him a few more games with this team ans we'll see him back to his best, then France will have two good tens Trinhduc and Beauxis, leave the nines at nine I think.
Posted 15:11 20th November 2011
mlbp says...
Beauxis should have been France's starting flyhalf for years. He was really good when he played some years ago, but Laporte only saw him as a kicking player and not the all-round tactician that he is, he can kick, send his line running and defend. I hope Saint-André considers him for the number 10 shirt.
Posted 00:59 20th November 2011