Toulouse v Bristol: Five takeaways as ‘tackling allergy’ sickens Bears to allow ‘veteran winger’ and ‘raw-powered’ English forward to shine
Saturday was a day to remember for two-try Toulouse winger Teddy Thomas and one to forget for Bristol prop Ellis Genge, inset (INPHO/James Crombie and Billy Stickland)
Following a comfortable 59-26 triumph for nine-try Toulouse at home to Bristol, here are our five takeaways from the Investec Champions Cup round of 16 encounter.
The top line
Ben Youngs, the England record men’s caps holder, predicted this would be a match that every rugby fan would salivate over this weekend due to the attacking capabilities of both teams.
In his latest Champions Cup column for Planet Rugby, he predicted that the struggling Bears would show up and revel in having “a free swing” at the star-studded hosts under the sun in France. He was right – but only for about five minutes.
Bristol skipper Fitz Harding lit a fire with his early score, rounding off an attack that stemmed from scrum ball and featured the easy-on-the-eye sight of a Louis Rees-Zammit gallop.
But that was the end of the visiting team’s sparkle until the dying embers of a Champions Cup encounter where they added a couple of consolation tries to leave only 33 points between two mismatched teams. Rather than this being the predicted two-way high-scoring classic, it was instead a one-sided runaway as Bristol capitulated in the heat.
After their early concession, Toulouse struck back with a bonanza of tries, first from the leg-driving Jack Willis, next from Peato Mauvaka at a maul and then from the foot-shuffling Kalvin Gourgues before Mauvaka added his second to leave it 28-7 just 20 minutes in.
Bristol dug in and were making a decent fist of their emergency until Matthis Lebel dived in at the corner six minutes before the break and Gourgues then added another in the final minute after being gifted an intercept.
Just 50 seconds of the second half were needed to move the scoreboard on further, with Lebel grabbing his second, but Bristol then found nourishment in Kalaveti Ravouvou’s try and the yellow card for Romain Ntamack after he collided with Benhard Janse van Rensburg’s head in the lead up to that score.
This revival was short-lived as Bristol’s inaccuracy was punished by a brace of tries from Teddy Thomas, resulting in the score spinning out to a cavernous 59-12. Williams and Noah Heward did strike back with consolations, but there was no disguising the gulf in class and the enormity of this hiding for the PREM club.
From UK winter to French spring sun
The winter just gone provided the rugby world with the blueprint to upsetting Toulouse – have them play in brutal UK weather and have Antoine Dupont looking like a grassroots player by wearing leggings on astro pitches. Yes, the French were ghostly shadows of brilliant selves when blown away at Glasgow and Saracens. That numbness, though, was eventually taken out on hapless Sale.
The PREM Rugby strugglers were embarrassingly smacked to the tune of 77-7 in January, and this Toulouse appetite for crushing the English then carried over into a Saturday where the Bears were painfully nailed to the Easter Saturday cross. Ugo Mola’s side lapped up the opportunity to play in the sun, and the joie the conditions encouraged was a thrill to watch.
So accurate was what they produced that Youngs’ prediction that Toulouse would win by 20 was proven to be very conservative. The margin was 33 and it would have been more had the hosts not switched off in the final quarter to save some energy.
With fans of free-flowing rugby satisfied with their 13-try Easter feast, it’s now on to the serious business of Toulouse’s likely quarter-final trip to Bordeaux next weekend as the defending champions are tipped to do a Toulouse-like number this Sunday on Leicester Tigers in that round of 16 tie.
Bring on next weekend’s showdown – it should be a classic.
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Tackling allergy
Pat Lam knows what it takes to win at Toulouse. His teams’ have-a-go style of play resulted in Connacht defeating the French galacticos in their own backyard in 2016, his then Irish side triumphing 23-21 after trailing by 11 points. However, there was never a sniff of a Lam-ball revival on this return trip 10 years later with his Bears.
Once they fell behind, they stayed behind, and it quickly became a damage limitation exercise that simply wasn’t good enough for a club with big ambitions. What did for Bristol was their allergy to tackling, their completion rate coming in at a damaging 70 per cent.
The statistical bean counters had them down for 39 missed tackles and the identity of the visiting player who missed the most provided food for thought in an international perspective.
There has been speculation that Van Rensburg, the South African who found his feet at London Irish before heading west, is a potential call-up to Steve Borthwick’s England set-up, but he found the going tough in Toulouse and the question is whether he would be able to make the step up in quality if called upon.
Taking on Toulouse was akin to playing a Test-level team and his level of defending was found wanting. He wasn’t alone in this situation but given the hype, it wasn’t a great reflection on him.
Then again, this Bristol set-up appears to be struggling across the board to pick anything up post-Six Nations. That’s three losses now on the bounce, and their season is now in danger of petering out tamely unless they somehow remedy things in the PREM.
Teddy time
He is a back-line veteran these days at the age of 32, but ex-French Test winger Thomas provided a vibrant reminder of his attacking prowess down the touchline. Admittedly, he only joined in the fun after Toulouse had already scored four tries but what he contributed exemplified why the Pink City club snapped him up this season when his La Rochelle contract expired.
Two first-half incidents showed he was in the mood for mischief: there was a 28th-minute run and kick that was only denied a try by Rees-Zammit beating him in the dive over the line, and another canter shortly after had Antoine Dupont threatening from the inside pass that was quickly moved on to another supporting teammate.
It was in the second half, though, that the breaks finally went Thomas’ way, but only after he was shown up in defence by the Ravouvou try. With Bristol untidy in minding the house, Thomas ran in a nice 54th-minute try and he was celebrating again just minutes later when a Dupont kick panicked Williams, who missed his touch behind the line to allow Thomas to finish.
It was comforting to see a one-time star name posting a reminder that he definitely still has it. Well played.
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Raw-powered Willis
Mention of post-game statistics, in a free-flowing game where his team scored nine tries, Toulouse back-rower Willis was credited with just a 10-metre gain for his seven carries. That sounds negative, but what he achieved before the game became loose and was still there to be won by his team must be factored in and awarded kudos.
It was a gut punch for Toulouse to fall behind so early to the visitors, and a quick response was needed to prevent Bristol from becoming confident that their round of 16 away day was a mission possible. This riposte was fired by Willis in the most roll-your-sleeves-up way.
Receiving the ball five metres out from the line with a plentiful supply of defenders in front of him, he has no right to go forward. However, his power in the leg drive was simply immense and he burrowed his way to the line to score despite having opposition players hanging off of him.
It was a fantastic finish from an excellent player and another example of what England are missing at Test level with their insistence that Borthwick can only pick players that are based in the PREM.