Stade Toulousain 21 (12)
Biarritz Olympic 19 (9)

French giants Stade Toulousain withstood a late rally from Biarritz to claim their fourth European crown as they beat the Basques 21-19 on a gloriously sunny afternoon in Paris.

Guy Noves’ team failed to score a try – although not for want of trying – but the combined boots of David Skrela (15 points) and Florian Fritz (six) proved sufficient as they continually capitalized on the utter dominance of their pack in the scrums.

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Time and again the Toulouse forwards pulverized their Biarritz opponents, causing such havoc at the set piece that at times it looked like men against boys.

But Toulouse didn’t have it all their own way, and they struggled especially at the lineout, where Imanol Harinordoquy and Jérôme Thion were both outstanding for the Basques.

Toulouse also squandered at least four clear try-scoring opportunities, with the butter-fingered Maxime Médard twice guilty of wasting gilt-edged chances. One of those came in the opening few minutes as Toulouse attempted to stamp their early authority on the match, but it was Biarritz who emerged the stronger heading towards half time.

The 2006 runners-up were 9-3 after half an hour thanks to a trio of Dimitri Yachvili penalties, but Toulouse then found another gear to collect nine points of their own before the break as they stole a 12-9 lead at the interval.

Two Skrela penalties (in the 32^nd and 36^th minutes) pulled them level as Biarritz were forced into fouls at the scrum, before Fritz’s 39^th-minute drop-goal sent them ahead after English ref Wayne Barnes had asked for the video ref to confirm it had gone over after crashing into the right-hand post.

If Toulouse’s 12-9 advantage was a little harsh on Biarritz then the European kings made sure of their quest for a fourth title with a bombastic second period. The only surprise was that they didn’t cross for a try as their forwards continued to annihilate the Basque scrum, but nerves or tension got the better of Noves’ men as they wasted another trio of opportunities.

That profligacy looked as though it could prove costly when Argentine second row Patricio Albacete saw yellow in the 49^th minute for a professional foul on Benoit August – after the Biarritz hooker had kicked and chased through to the Toulouse 22 – especially after Yachvili kicked the ensuing penalty to level the scores.

Biarritz had been handed a perfect opportunity to try and take a grip on the game with their numerical superiority, but it was in fact Toulouse who benefited most during the next 10 minutes, with Skrela kicking two opportunistic drop-goals as they made light of Albacete’s sin-binning.

The game then looked up when Skrela’s fifth success of the afternoon – this time a penalty – put Toulouse 21-12 up with just over 10 minutes to play, and when heroic hooker William Servat was substituted on 72 minutes he milked the applause as if the trophy itself had already been claimed.

Less than a minute later and suddenly the game had been turned on its head after a swift Biarritz counter attack culminated with former rugby league international Karmichael Hunt racing in under the posts for the Basques. Valentin Courrent duly kicked the simple conversion and in a flash the game had been put back on a knife edge, with just two points separating the sides.

Biarritz threw everything they had at Toulouse in the final seven minutes as they sought to pull off a stunning fight-back, but appropriately enough it was the Toulouse forwards who prevented further breakthroughs as they clung on defiantly to claim their fourth Heineken crown.

When scrum-half Byron Kelleher – who was immense throughout – finally kicked the ball into touch to seal the win no-one in the stadium could reasonably claim that they didn’t deserve their win as they returned once more to their rightful place at the head of European club rugby.

Biarritz: Balshaw; Ngwenya, Hunt, Mignardi, Gobelet; Peyrelongue, Yachvili; Coetzee, August, Johnstone, Thion, Hall, Lund, Lauret, Harinordoquy.
Replacements: Barcella (for Coetzee, 51), Bidabe (for Gobelet, 59), Carizza (for Hall, 60), Faure (for Lauret, 60), Terrain (for August, 69), Courrent (for Yachvili, 71).
Not Used: Hughes, Erinle.

Toulouse: Poitrenaud; Clerc, Fritz, Jauzion, Medard; Skrela, Kelleher; Poux, Servat, Lecouls, Millo-Chluski, Albacete, Bouilhou, Dusautoir, Sowerby.
Replacements: Maestri (for Millo-Chluski, 59), Human (for Poux, 61), Johnston for Lecouls (64), Heymans (for Poitrenaud, 68), Picamoles (for Sowerby, 71), David (for Fritz, 71), Basualdo (for Servat, 72).
Not Used: Elissalde.
Sin Bin: Albacete (51).

Att: 80,000
Ref: Wayne Barnes (RFU).