Three-try Toulouse win again
by Michel Dora 18 October 2008
Glasgow Warriors 16 (9)
Toulouse 22 (7)
Toulouse rediscovered their attacking flair with three tries
in a comfortable 22-16 victory against Glasgow Warriors at
Firhill in Pool 5.
The three times champions
were initially slow to find their rhythm – not entirely
surprising given their short turnaround from Sunday’s narrow
win against Bath – but put paid to their Scottish hosts with
a 15-point burst shortly after half-time.
Tries from scrum-half
Byron Kelleher and captain Yannick Jauzion added to David
Skrela’s first-half effort to ensure the win, with
Toulouse’s only disappointment being to miss out on an
attacking bonus point.
That may yet be crucial at
the end of what is bound to be a tight group, but for now
Guy Noves’ team were just happy to get the win under their
belt on a cold and wet night in Glasgow.
The home side were
typically dogged in the opening exchanges, scrapping for
loose ball and capitalising on Toulouse’s sloppy early play
as they coughed up nine handling errors in the first half.
Three penalties from the returning Dan Parks gave them a 9-7
interval lead despite Skrela’s silky opening try.
The French fly-half had
another outstanding game for the ‘Rouges et Noirs’, tackling
hard, kicking with aplomb and setting his centres free with
a series of well timed passes. And when Toulouse stole
possession from a Glasgow scrum in the 24th minute he was
also on hand to glide past three defenders and touch down
for his seventh Heineken Cup try, although his first for
Toulouse.
The former Stade Francais
man has already made quite an impact this season at the
defending Top 14 champions, but with Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde
warming the bench and Clement Poitrenaud back in the
starting XV (at full-back) there is no lack of incentive.
And that’s without the return of Freddie Michalak, due back
from his South African sojourn next month.
The key passage of play
came immediately after half-time, and presumably a roasting
from Noves, as Toulouse upped the tempo and ran Glasgow
ragged for 15 minutes. Maleli Kunavore got the momentum
going with a neat left-footed drop-goal two minutes after
the restart and Kelleher went over for the visitors’ second
try 60 seconds later after good work down the left flank by
Maxime Medard and Patricio Albacete.
Kunavore’s pass to Medard looked forward but
the young utility back – he has been playing full-back so
far this season in Poitrenaud’s absence – made amends for a
mixed first-half as he surged past his man before passing on
to the bullocking Albacete, who in turn set up Kelleher from
close range.
Skrela missed the
conversion but Toulouse went further ahead shortly after
when Poitrenaud’s chip kick allowed Jauzion to power through
for try number three.
At 22-9 it looked like
game over bar the search for a bonus point, but the Warriors
stuck admirably to their task and were rewarded with a late
try of their own when Lome Fa’atau touched down in the 74th
minute after hacking clear from yet another Toulouse attack.
* Castres’ English centre Phil Christophers has been cited
following an alleged eye-gouging incident in last week’s
Heineken Cup clash with Wasps. However, he is free to play
in Saturday’s match against Edinburgh as the citing was
lodged outside the 50-hour window.
* French woes continued in the European Challenge Cup with
only one of four Top 14 clubs emerging victorious last
night, and that was in the all-French clash between
Mont-de-Marsan and Bayonne.
Bayonne won 26-8 to
continue Les Montois’ miserable season, with Craig Gower and
Nicolas Laffite scoring their tries.
Elsewhere, Toulon’s
travails were compounded when they went down 39-11 to
Bristol, as the home side registered their first win in 14
matches, while Bourgoin also lost, stumbling to a 28-29
defeat at home to Petrarca Padova in Pool 3.
Bourgoin looked to have
the match won when Rudi Coetzee scored two minutes from time
to make it 28-22 at the Stade Pierre Rajon but the Italians
bounced back with Warren Spragg’s last-minute try allowing
Ludovic Mercier’s conversion to steal it.
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