Connacht Show Mettle In Toulouse Defeat

A spirited Connacht side made Toulouse battle all the way before the reigning French champions eventually sealed a bonus point win in round 5 of the Heineken Cup.

It may have been Connacht’s 14th successive defeat but they will take a lot of encouragement from this display at the Stade Ernest Wallon.

The Connacht scrum was in all sorts of trouble in the opening half and that undid a lot of great work with Toulouse getting half of their eight first half penalties on their own scrum.

But it was obvious from the outset that Eric Elwood’s men were going to make the French side battle for it.

They should have hit the front after just five minutes but the kicking frailties which have hindered Connacht all season was once again evident as Niall O’Connor hit the left hand post from a straightforward 25-metre attempt.

However, he gave Connacht a surprise lead after 15 minutes when he landed a penalty from 40 metres. The score arised from a late tackle by Thierry Dusautoir on Tiernan O’Halloran which led to a dust-up in midfield.

Toulouse only got into the Connacht 22 twice in the opening half but they scored two tries off these forays and it took a superb tackle by a fired-up Ray Ofisa on Luke McAlister to prevent what seemed an inevitable try.

Nevertheless, Toulouse hit the front at the end of the opening quarter. They put in a superb drive off a lineout on the right, and the attack finished with Fijian Sevens international Timoci Matanavou touching down Maxime Medard’s grubber kick.

McAlister missed the conversion but created the second try for Medard with a pinpoint cross-field kick after Medard had made a fine break.

In between, Connacht countered well but the closest they came to scoring was when David McSharry went inside and got smothered up with his captain Gavin Duffy cutting a good line outside him.

That left it 10-3 at the break but Toulouse turned the screw after the restart with 20-stone Samoan tighthead Census Johnston leading the charge.

They pounded the Connacht line for several minutes early on in the second half. The pressure finally told with number 8 Louis Picamoles getting their third try with a tap and go after another infringement by the visiting pack.

Lionel Beauxis, who replaced Florian Fritz at the break, added the conversion from the right to make it 17-3. But Connacht hit back with O’Halloran superb on the left wing and they again took the game to Toulouse.

The home crowd started getting frustrated when it seemed that they would not get a bonus point, but ten minutes from time Matanavou got in for his second try down the left.

Beauxis again added the difficult conversion to put further daylight between them but it was Connacht who finished the game on the offensive.

The westerners will now hope to wrap up their maiden season in the Heineken Cup by defeating Harlequins next Friday in Galway, and they will go into that clash with plenty of confidence after this gutsy display.

Elwood said afterwards: “It would be great to finish our first season in the Heineken Cup with a win and we will take a lot of encouragement from this game into that match against Harlequins.

“We are happy with the performance. It was important to mentally understand how important this game was. It wasn’t just another game. I think the lads in fairness prepared very well, they were mentally prepared for this game.

“And at half-time at 10-3 down we were in a good game here, and they knew they were.

“Okay it finished off 24-3 but maybe that wasn’t a scoreline that a lot of people would have expected. But the effort was excellent, the performance was excellent and some of our defensive work was excellent.”