Connacht 10 Toulouse 36:It's doubtful whether Connacht, the city of Galway or the Sportsground has ever experienced anything like it. The ground was awash with dignitaries and despite a composed and efficient Toulouse win, a record Sportsground crowd of 9,120 stayed with their team and a memorable day until the end.
Nothing came easy for Connacht on the pitch, where the pressure was relentless, especially at scrum time. Such was Toulouse’s manifold and energy-sapping superiority here that, all bar one of Lionel Beauxis’ three-pointers emanated from this course one way or the other. This included a penalty try, though the one consolation for Connacht, ironically, was that this was the source for their seven-pointer too.
Toulouse had paid Connacht the respect of playing pretty much a full-strength side, if such a thing exists in their multi-decorated squad of mostly test players, though as one former player noted, he’d have preferred if they had been a bit more disrespectful.
With 13, mostly experienced French performers in this competition, they took that respect into the match from the kick-off by classically constructing a lead through three-pointers to dampen the spirits of home team and crowd alike as Beauxis stepped into the pocket for a nonchalantly taken drop goal in between two penalties.
Also ready and able to run from deep, they had butchered a couple of tries too, notably when Florian Fritz failed to put Maximje Medard away but when the ball popped out from a pressurised Connacht scrum Louis Picamoles pounced, the excellent Thierry Dusautoir supported and form the recycle the third back-rower, captain Jean Bouilhou ploughed over - possibly with the hint of a double movement.
There would also be two more scrum penalties by Beauxis either side of a penalty by Miah Nikora. There had been glimpses from the young Connacht tryos in midfield, Dave McSharry and Eoin Griffin, but in response to a penalty try, again off scrum pressure, Eric Elwood turned to his bench, from where Frank Murphy, in particular, made an impact, as did Ray Ofisa and, most certainly, Ronan Loughney at loose-head. With the help of a few decisions finally going their way, Connacht built up a head of steam by carrying hard into contact, looking for offloads and running from everywhere.
Toulouse also emptied their bench, of course, and Romain Millo-Chluski stymied one offload with a muscular steal before Gavin Duffy, excellent throughout, looped around Tiernan O’Halloran for an excellent counter and a sequence of offloads had them pounding on the Toulouse line. But, after a line-out maul, McCarthy spilled the ball in contact.
Reward for incessant pressure came by way of their own penalty try off a fine scrum, not long after Loughney’s introduction but also, the indignity of it all, immediately after the introduction of Jean-Baptiste Poux, a starting World Cup finalist no less.
Yannick Nyanga had the final say when scoring from close-range - again from a back-row move off a scrum. All bar the referee, were warmly applauded from the pitch. And Guy Noves, despite his club being denied a bonus point, even gave the Clan Terrace a little clap in return. A good day.
Scoring sequence: 6 minsBeauxis pen 0-3; 12 minsBeauxis drop goal 0-6; 15 minsBeauxis pen 0-9; 22 minsBouilhou try and Beauxis con con 0-16; 32 minsBeauxis pen 0-19; 35 minsNikora pen 3-19; 40 minsBeauxis pen 3-22; (half-time 3-22); 47 minspenalty try, Beauxis con 3-29; 70 minspenalty try, Nikora con 10-29; 77 minsNyanga try, Beauxis 10-36.
Connacht Rugby:G Duffy [capt]; T O'Halloran, E Griffin, D McSharry, B Tuohy; M Nikora, P O'Donohoe; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, R Ah You, M Swift, D Gannon, M McCarthy, J Muldoon, G Naoupu. Replacements:E Reynecke for Flavin, D Rogers for Ah You (both 49 mins), R Ofisa for Gannon (50 mins), F Murphy for O'Donohue (51 mins), R Loughney for Wilkinson, T Anderson for Muldoon (both 64 mins), H Fa'afili for Griffin (67 mins), Flavin for Anderson (77 mins). Not used:N O'Connor. Sinbinned:McCarthy (29-39 mins), Reynecke (77 mins),
Toulouse:C Poitrenaud; M Medard, F Fritz, Y Jauzion, V Clerc; L Beauxis, L Burgess; Y Montes, W Servat, C Johnston, G Lamboley, Y Maestri, J Bouilhou [capt], T Dusautoir, L Picamoles. Replacements:G Botha for Servat, J Falefa for Johnston, L McAlister for Poitrenaud (all 50 mins), R Millo-Chluski for Maestri (55 mins), G Galan for Picamoles (60 mins), N Vergallo for Burgess (62 mins), Y Nyanga for Millo-Chluski (68 mins), J-B Poux for Montes (69 mnis).
Referee:Greg Garner (England)
