Boost for Toulouse.

Toulouse received a boost two weeks ahead of their defence of the Heineken Cup when French international scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde returned to action for the first time in two months in the championship match against Brive on Saturday.

The 26-year-old had not played since he tore a hamstring while
scoring a
try in the 29-22 victory over Wales in the Six Nations clash on 6th March.

However he came on in the 65th minute of the 29-9 victory over
Brive
replacing French fly-half Frederic Michalak, Elissalde like the
player he
replaced can play in both halfback positions.
“I didn’t really enjoy it out there but it is good to be back
as I didn’t
expect even to be playing before the end of the season,” he
admitted.

“However I had to go on because there were no other options
at that stage
and it is good to get a bit of a workout even if there wasn’t much
pressure as
we had the game won by then.

“The positive thing is that I didn’t feel any pain in the
hamstring,” he
added.

Elissalde’s return is welcome news also for Toulouse as the other
fly-half
Yann Delaigue had to pull out of this match half-an-hour before the
match with
Brive because of a pulled calf muscle.

Meanwhile, their opponents in the final London Wasps were handed a 48-17 hammering by Leicester at Adams Park on Saturday. The result means that Wasps must now beat Northampton Saints next weekend to book their place in the Final, which will take place less than a week after the Heineken Cup Final against Toulouse – also at Twickenham.

The game against Northampton is hardly what coach Warren Gatland would have ideally wanted a week before his side take on Toulouse in the Heineken final. There is a jaded air about the Wasps side just now and one club source claiming that the players “have been out on their feet since the game against Munster in the semi-final.” Whatever the truth of that claim, the spring does look to be gone out of the Wasps’ step since that epic encounter two weeks ago.