Antoine Dupont inspires Toulouse in dominant win over Ulster in Belfast

Antoine Dupont was at his best as he powered Toulouse to a 48-24 win over Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast on Saturday.

The scrum-half ended up with a brace of tries and an assist on a fruitful evening. Joining him on the scoresheet was Matthis Lebel, a Peato Mauvaka brace, Alexandre Roumat and Emmanuel Meafou.

Fly-half Thomas Ramos was on hand to add points off the tee as he kicked four conversions and a penalty.

The hosts scored their points through three tries from Tom Stewart, Will Addison and Nick Timoney with John Cooney adding a conversion and a penalty, and Nathan Doak kicking two conversions.

Click here to see teams and scorers

The first points of the game came after only nine minutes as left-wing Lebel crossed for his try as the game settled in. Ramos made no mistake from the tee. Ulster formed some sort of response three minutes later with a Cooney penalty to get on the board.

It was not too long before more points were scored through a Ramos penalty, which cancelled out Cooney’s earlier kick.

Soon after, the floodgates temporarily opened with two quick-fire tries from Mauvaka (30’) and Dupont (34’) as the scrum-half’s influence continued to grow.

Ulster seemed to have give themselves hope through a try on the stroke of half-time from Stewart which Cooney converted.

However, the fortunes did not improve for the hosts as Dupont and Mauvaka both completed their braces in the 46th and 53rd minutes respectively. Ramos added the extras for both to give Toulouse a strong lead, only made stronger by Roumat’s try just before the hour mark.

The hosts did their best to respond through two converted tries of their own from Addison and Timoney but ultimately Toulouse were in control and scored a last-minute try from Meafou to rub salt into the wounds for Ulster.

The teams

Ulster: 15 Mike Lowry, 14 Rob Baloucoune, 13 James Hume, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Billy Burns, 9 John Cooney, 8 Nick Timoney, 7 Sean Reffell, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 Iain Henderson (c), 4 Kieran Treadwell, 3 Tom O’Toole, 2 Tom Stewart, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Replacements: 16 John Andrew, 17 Andrew Warwick, 18 Marty Moore, 19 Al O’Connor, 20 Matty Rea, 21 Nathan Doak, 22 Luke Marshall, 23 Will Addison

Toulouse: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Juan Cruz Mallia, 13 Dimitri Delibes, 12 Pita Ahki, 11 Matthis Lebel, 10 Thomas Ramos, 9 Antoine Dupont (c), 8 Alexandre Roumat, 7 Anthony Jelonch, 6 François Cros, 5 Emmanuel Meafou, 4 Richie Arnold, 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 2 Peato Mauvaka, 1 Cyril Baille
Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 David Ainu’u, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Joshua Brennan, 20 Jack Willis, 21 Paul Graou, 22 Santiago Chocobares, 23 Setareki Bituniyata

Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)
Assistant Referees: Sara Cox (Eng), Simon Harding (Eng)
TMO: Ian Tempest (Eng)

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