Toulouse 20 Ulster 26
It was hard to know what to make of this utterly wild and wonderfully whacky match, or even how it sets up Ulster for their second leg of this Heineken Champions Cup round of 16 tie against the five-time winners at the Kingspan Stadium next Saturday.
Offered a six-point lead to take back to Belfast before kick-off they’d have bitten your hand off, but they’ll have decidedly more mixed feelings afterwards.
This was primarily because Toulouse were obliged to play for virtually 70 minutes with 14 men after their Argentinian winger Juan Cruz Mallia was sent off for carelessly and recklessly taking out his airborne Ulster counterpart Ben Moxham.
For all the home crowd’s wailing at the time and thereafter as, typically, they sought to make up for their team’s numerical disadvantage, Wayne Barnes’ card was justified and more pertinently Moxham went off for an HIA and never returned.
Furthermore, Ulster also eschewed any number of shots at goal in going to the corner but were often inaccurate in their execution, while their rucks were frequently under-resourced and counter-rucked and Rory Arnold also did untold damage to the Ulster lineout.
And yet they kept calm at critical moments, showed what a talented side they are and had an ace up their sleeves in Robert Baloucoune, assuredly the best finisher in Irish rugby for some time now. One had a feeling this stage might be set for him, and he might have had more than a hat-trick had he backed himself once more, while he also made three superlative and important tackles.
Toulouse aren’t right. They are not themselves. Even Antoine Dupont was a little off-colour but they have been kept alive by Romain Nrtamack’s late try although the ‘defeat’ also came at a cost for Toulouse, whose replacements Alban Placines and Sofiane Guitoune both departed prematurely with injuries while Mallia faces a suspension.
Atmosphere
Before kick-off Ulster might have been reasonably pleased heading into the break just 13-7 down, and while that was far from disastrous, it felt like an opportunity missed after the 11th minute dismissal of Mallia. More precisely, several opportunities missed.
The atmosphere had fairly crackled before kick-off with a reduced sell-out of around 28,000 and les rouge et noires were in riotous full colour and voice on a warm, sunny spring day which seemed tailor-made for the five-time winners and reigning champions.
This feeling was re-enforced as they quickly settled into an imposing groove, Ulster not helping themselves with the concession of penalties in the middle of the pitch which gave Toulouse access into their 22.
They required a superb tackle by Baloucoune on Thomas Ramos to keep the home side at bay but second time round Toulouse worked hooker Peato Mauvaka up the blindside of an unawares Ulster blindside defence. On they ploughed through their big runners before some jinking by Ntamack before lock Emmanuel Meafou ploughed through the tackles of Marcus Rea and Rob Herring to score and Ramos converted.
But the whole tenor of the contest pivoted dramatically when Mallia chased a box kick and took out the airborne Moxham, who somersaulted on impact to land on his head/neck. Wayne Barnes was clear in his thinking on review, that Mallia was never in a position to contest for the ball, his actions had been "really reckless" and Moxham had landed on his head/neck area. His only option was a red card.
Billy Burns arrowed the penalty from inside half-way to within seven metres of the Toulouse line. Ulster were unrelenting square on and direct in going through the phases, with Marty Moore, twice, Nick Timoney, Herring and Duane Vermeulen leading the charge, before James Hume deftly transferred John Cooney’s pass while luring in the outside man, Matthis Lebel, for Baloucoune to score.
Cooney also levelled with a fine conversion and thereafter the tale of the half was largely of Ulster losing the penalty count and Ramos landing two of three shots at goal, while Ulster continually went to the corner and mixed some nice launch plays with some poorly executed ones.
A poor pass out the back by Eric O’Sullivan for Michael Lowry was a case in point, and Stuart McCloskey was also isolated once, as was Herring twice when peeling off mauls, which seemed unforgiveable. On the second of these it was Antoine Dupont who both tackled and counter-rucked to win the turnover penalty.
Ulster needed the interval to regroup, calm down and work out how to maximise their advantage. On the resumption they went wide left off a scrum (Burns’ forward pass to Rob Lyttle was missed), back up the middle and then wide right, where Hume drew Francois Cros with his footwork and put McCloskey through a gap.
Style
The centre weighed up his options on his inside and outsight, and not unreasonably opted for the latter and Baloucoune, who finished in his inimitable style, albeit Cooney missed the conversion so Toulouse stayed ahead by a point.
They looked to have extended that when Lebel finished off another madcap period of play when Ntamack led a break out after Meafou’s monster hit on Baloucoune and yet another counter-ruck, but it was ruled out for a fumble by Dupont at the base. A big moment, before Dupont even kicked out on the full.
Toulouse had appeared to have the more high calibre replacements, but Ulster’s gave them impetus, not least when Kieran Treadwell and Tom O’Toole went up the guts and offloaded in turn for Lowry to threaten the line.
From another penalty to the corner the Ulster pack went route one off the catch-and-drive and Andrew Warwick bounced over a tackle from Jordi Murphy’s pass to score.
Warwick even backed that up with a vital steal as Toulouse responded like champions. The replacements Cyrille Baille, Richie Arnold and Anthony Jelonch then made inroads only for Baloucoune to read Dupont’s risky long flat pass off the base and score from 80 minutes, to the fury of the crowd as they implored the officials during several replays that the Ulster right-winger was offside. He wasn’t.
So Toulouse had to throw the kitchen sink at it to keep themselves alive. Amid a torrent of endgame penalties to the home side - quelle surprise - their big runners kept hammering away at the Ulster defence until they worked the space for Nrtamack to straighten over from Dupont’s pass.
Ramos even had the crowd in a frenzy at the prospect of stealing a remarkable one-point lead with a big break out before being collared by Nathan Doak and finally Martin Page Relo knocked on.
Two exhausted sets of players slumped, many to the ground, before Barnes was escorted off to a cacophony of boos from a typically indignant French crowd and which was almost comical.
And it’s only half-time.
Scoring sequence - 7 mins: Meafou try, Ramos con 7-0; 13 mins: Baloucoune try, Cooney con 7-7; 17 mins: Ramos pen 10-7; 40 (+1) mins: Ramos pen 13-7; (half-time 13-7); 45 mins: Baloucoune try 13-12; 59 mins: Warwick try, Cooney con 13-19; 66 mins: Baloucoune try, Cooney con 13-26; 80 mins: Ntamack try, Ramos con 20-26.
STADE TOULOUSAIN: Thomas Ramos; Juan Cruz Mallía, Zack Holmes, Pita Ahki, Matthis Lebel; Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont (capt); Rodrigue Neti, Peato Mauvaka, Dorian Aldegheri; Rory Arnold, Emmanuel Meafou; Rynhardt Elstadt, Thibaud Flament, Francois Cros.
Replacements: Cyril Baille for Neti, Charlie Faumuina for Aldeghri (both 49 mins), Richie Arnold for Meafu, Anthony Jelonch for Esltadt (58 mins), Alban Placines for Cros (64 mins), Guillaume Cramont for Placines, Sofiane Guitoune for Ahki (68 mins), Martin Page Relo for Guitoune (75 mins).
Sent-off: Cruz (11 mins).
ULSTER: Michael Lowry; Robert Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Ben Moxham; Billy Burns, John Cooney; Eric O'Sullivan, Rob Herring, Marty Moore; Alan O'Connor, Iain Henderson (capt); Marcus Rea, Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.
Replacements: Rob Lyttle for Moxham (11 mins), Tom O’Toole for Moore,
Luke Marshall for McCloskey (both 50 mins), Kieran Treadwell for O'Connor, Jordi Murphy for Rea (both 54 mins), Andrew Warwick for O'Sullivan (56 mins), Nathan Doak for Cooney (72 mins), Brad Roberts for Herring (80 mins).
Referee: (Wayne Barnes).
