Toulouse 36; Edinburgh 10: A Marcus Di Rollo try before the break put Edinburgh within three points of champions Toulouse on Saturday. It was better than they can have expected and maybe as good as it will get.
Edinburgh's coach Frank Hadden suggested afterwards his side's achievement in reaching the knockout stage would not be repeated, not by Edinburgh nor any Scottish team.
"You need a playing budget of at least two million pounds to compete at this level," he claimed and after the latest round of cutbacks his side are probably teetering along on around half that amount.
Toulouse's place in the semi-final against Biarritz was only briefly threatened after they scored 10 points in the first 10 minutes. They kicked three penalties in the third quarter but it was only in the final 10 minutes the favourites were able to cut loose; late tries from Clement Poitrenaud and Vincent Clerc giving the final score a lopsided look.
The sell-out match was marred by an altercation between the Edinburgh physio Stuart Barton and Toulouse wing Cedric Heymans that incurred the displeasure of Irish flanker Trevor Brennan.
Edinburgh have more pressing issues than that violent incident, such as whether they have the budget to tempt Todd Blackadder to extend his playing career.
Given the long-term injury to Simon Taylor, the club's officials will be making every effort to dissuade him from retiring. "I may have another season in me," the Kiwi later admitted.
As for the game, Blackadder felt that while his side were well in it after the first half, "It all went wrong in the later stages when we missed a couple of crucial tackles and let them in for tries."
But even the former All Black looked ordinary in comparison to Toulouse's Christian Labit, who scored his side's opening try and made huge inroads into the visitors' defence at every opportunity. Toulouse will need the number eight to be at his best in a fortnight's time in the semi-final as captain Fabien Pelous admitted he was impressed with Biarritz's performance at Stradey Park.
"They have a very good set-piece game," he conceded, "and they've recently added excellent defence to their game. It's going to be a great game but then any semi-final of the Heineken Cup should be a great game."
TOULOUSE: Poitrenaud; Clerc, Jauzion, N'Tamack (Desbrosse, 27), Heymans; Delaigue, Dupuy; Collazo (Fiorini, 76), Bru, Poux, Pelous, Brennan (Gerard, 55) Bouilhou, F Maka (I Maka, 55), Labit. Tries: Labit, Poitrenaud, Clerc. Pens: Delaigue 4, Heymans. Cons: Delaigue 3.
EDINBURGH: Lee; Paterson (Southwell, 30), Philip, Di Rollo, Webster (Joiner, 60); Laney, Blair (Burns, 77); Jacobsen, Hall (Kelly, 67), Brannigan (Smith, 50), Murray (Kellock, 76), Hines, Blackadder, Cross, Hogg. Try: Di Rollo. Con: Laney. Pen: Laney.
Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).
Guardian Service
