Top 14: Too good Toulouse throw down the
championship gauntlet
29 November 2008
Toulouse 32 (17) Bayonne 11 (3)
Leaders Toulouse brushed aside battling
Bayonne with a comprehensive 32-11 victory as they threw
down the gauntlet to any would-be title challengers.
The defending champions opened with such
intensity that they demolished the Bayonne pack in the first
two scrums, earning a brace of early penalties that Freddie
Michalak eagerly anticipated.
They matched electric pace with slick
handling, carving open a Bayonne defence that had previously
gone nearly 400 minutes without conceding a try.
By the end of a pulsating evening the
visitors’ battered back line had been breached three times
with tries from Clement Poitrenaud, Byron Kelleher and
Virgile Lacombe condemning them to only their third defeat
of the season.
Michalak added five penalties as he
rediscovered his kicking form to the delight of another
sell-out crowd at the Ernest-Wallon.
The combination of measured aggression and
rapid off-loading proved too much for second-placed Bayonne,
and the victory margin would have been far greater but for
some dogged defending.
Indeed, strange as it may seem, Bayonne
should take encouragement from their performance as they
never lost heart despite the relentless home onslaught,
especially in the first half.
Much of the pre-match build up had centred on
the visitors’ intentions to fight fire with fire, but
there’s not much you can do if you don’t have the ball, as
they found to their cost as Michalak kicked Toulouse to a
12-0 advantage in the opening 30 minutes.
They definitely had fire, and they also had
fight, with Rob Linde sin-binned for a punch too far in a
feisty encounter that was well refereed by Jerome Garces.
But a try had to come, and eventually it was
full-back Poitrenaud who touched down three minutes before
the interval after Pepito Elhorga made a mess of Michalak’s
testing up-and-under.
Manny Edmonds did manage a penalty in return
but a half-time score of 17-3 underlined the gulf in class
as the Toulouse All Stars came out to play. Destroyed up
front and run ragged by the backs, Bayonne were just
thankful for a break when the referee blew for the interval.
Michalak added a fifth penalty shortly after
the restart but then gave way to Elissalde as Toulouse rang
the changes in an effort to maintain their high tempo. Their
willingness to run from almost anywhere thrilled the crowd,
if not always coach Guy Noves, and a second score was
inevitable.
It came on the hour when Kelleher’s pick up
and drive proved irresistible from five metres out as the
former All Black underlined why he was voted last season’s
Top 14 Player of the Year.
Elissalde added the extras to make it 27-6
but still Bayonne refused to buckle, getting just reward
when Benjamin Lhande went over with eight minutes remaining.
Any thoughts of a mini-revival were swiftly
snuffed out, however, with Virgile Lacombe cruising in for
Toulouse’s third try after an electric break by Cedric
Heymans that left five players trailing in his wake.
The win was Toulouse’s eighth in succession
in the league, lifting them six points clear of Bayonne in
the process. Stade Francais and Perpignan both have the
chance to move up to second if they win on Saturday, but
Toulouse remain in a class of their own at present, as
Bayonne will readily testify.
|
|
Toulouse |
Bayonne |
|
Tries |
Poitrenaud, Kelleher, Lacombe |
Lhande |
|
Conversions |
Elissalde |
|
|
Penalties |
Michalak (5) |
Edmonds (2) |
|
Drop-goals |
|
|
|
