Toulouse consolidated their place at the top of Heineken Cup Pool Six on Saturday with a 24-3 win over Connacht at Stade Ernest Wallon.
Toulouse disposed of Connacht clinically and professionally as they grabbed a crucial bonus point.
Connacht opened the scoring after 14 minutes through the boot of fly-half Niall O'Connor after IRB World Player of the Year Thierry Dusautoir had conceded the penalty with a rare moment of ill-discipline.
This only served to spur the French champions into life though and no one could keep pace with flying winger Timoci Matanavou as he raced onto a good kick through from Maxime Medard to touch down.
After a decent spell of possession for Connacht, Medard then rounded off an excellent Toulouse counter attack with a score of his own. Again the try came from a deft kick, this time from Kiwi fly-half Luke McAlister.
The Irishmen had done well to hang on to the coattails of their opponents and still be in the hunt at just 10-3 down at half-time.
However, the Top 14 leaders took advantage of their huge superiority in the scrum early in the second half.
After a series of reset scrums, Louis Picamoles caught the Connacht defence unawares by taking a free-kick quickly and powering over to score.
Just as it looked as though Toulouse might pull away, the Galway outfit showed great spirit and endeavour to frustrate their illustrious hosts for the next twenty minutes.
Toulouse were made to work for their bonus point but they duly got it with ten minutes to spare as Medard turned creator once more and Matanavou galloped down the left touchline to finish the job off with a fourth try.
The French giants are now firmly in pole position as they sit atop pool four with 18 points going into the final round of matches when they must visit Gloucester.
The scorers:
For Toulouse:
Tries: Matanavou 2, Medard, Picamoles
Cons: Beauxis 2
For Connacht:
Pens: O'Connor
Toulouse: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Yann David , 12 Florian Fritz, 11 Timoci Matanavou, 10 Luke McAlister, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Louis Picamoles , 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Census Johnston, 2 William Servat, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp.
Replacements:16 Christopher Tolofua, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Dan Human, 19 Grégory Lamboley, 20 Jean-Marc Doussain, 21 Lionel Beauxis, 22 Clément Poitrenaud, 23 Shaun Sowerby,
Connacht: 15 Gavin Duffy (C), 14 Fetu'u Vainikolo, 13 Kyle Tonetti, 12 Dave McSharry, 11 Tiernan O'Halloran, 10 Niall O'Connor, 9 Paul O'Donohoe, 8 George Naoupu, 7 Ray Ofisa, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Mike McCarthy, 4 Michael Swift, 3 Dylan Rogers, 2 Adrian Flavin, 1 Brett Wilkinson
Replacements: 16 Ethienne Reynecke 17 Denis Buckley 18 Stewart Maguire 19 Mick Kearney 20 Eoin McKeon 21 Dave Moore 22 Miah Nikora 23 Henry Fa'afili
Venue: Stade Ernest Wallon
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Comments
Rosbif says...
@lyhel. you are so right!! I guess it's really my own emotions I need to control. When I watch ST play, I have a higher level of anxiety and hope for good performance than with other teams. It's probably not a fair reflection on how they really played.
Mind you, if the early kicks had gone over, and Connacht hadn't butchered the try on 28th minute (simple pass to O'Halloran?), the score would have been 13-0 to the visitors. ST had not even visited the opposition half for the first 20 minutes. I know it's if, if, if. But it wasn't comfortable viewing. Bravo Connacht as damo says.
In the end, we had the scrum to assert dominance. And some magic from Medard who had a hand in 3 tries. (And I maybe should have mentioned Tolofua who came on for Servat - not bad for a teenager!)
Posted 09:05 15th January 2012
damo says...
well done Connaught!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lets hope the IRFU will give ye better backing next year and not let top players go to Munster and Leinster
Posted 20:07 14th January 2012
Rosbif says...
Not very impressed by ST today. For the most part they seemed lazy, arrogant, imprecise, disjointed in their teamwork, etc etc. (honourable exceptions wld be Burgess, Steenkamp and Beauxis). McAlister's kicking (goal and out of hand) is as bad as my golf, and his decision-making seems really poor, or at least he doesn't seem to be on the same wavelength as his 9 or his centres. For me Burgess looks a little lost. Guess he's not used to the "just do enough" approach. Dusautoir, despite always giving 100% himself, seems to accept less than 100% from many of his teammates. Are they just not lead-able? is he not a good motivator? or does he save his speeches for the bigger games, or when they fall behind? Who knows.....
Based on this performance, ST would lose to any of Leinster, Ulster, NH, Cardiff and probably Edinburgh right now. All these teams show real appetite for the contest. ST didn't today. People will say they got the bonus point win without ever getting past 2nd gear. As a lifelong ST supporter, I just wish they cld really click for once. Just to see if 3rd, 4th and 5th gears are really still there.
It's a paradox, but trying just 10% harder from the outset makes the game 50% easier. Play within yourself and the hesitation comes, there's no rhythm, you make mistakes, your opponent is encouraged, etc etc.
A visit to the Shed next. A town not unlike Toulouse in many ways. Looking forward to a much more energised ST :-)
Posted 19:12 14th January 2012