Toulouse destroy Lyon
Louis Picamoles scored a try on his return to Top 14 action as Toulouse's revival continued with their fifth successive win in all competitions with a 41-17 thrashing of Lyon at the weekend.
Picamoles – who has been out with a bout of pneumonia – was one of five try scorers for Toulouse who inflicted Lyon's first home defeat in over a year-and-a-half as the visitors backed up their away win against Bath last weekend in the European Cup and took a bonus point to boot.
This was the first time they had registered successive away wins in over a year.
Toulouse's victory didn't see them move up in the table as they stayed eighth, a point off Grenoble and eight adrift of leaders Clermont – who lost 13-24 to Bayonne 24-13 Clermont.
The only sour note for Toulouse was an injury to fullback Maxime Medard, who had to go off with what appeared to be a groin injury before the half hour mark having scored a try and created another for veteran wing Vincent Clerc.
"This is an important win for us and shows that we are moving in the right direction," said Clerc, who took his total of tries for Toulouse in the top tier to 87, 14 off all-time record holder Laurent Arbo.
"Now we must maintain the momentum because while we have started well in the European Cup (two wins from two games) we have a lot of ground to make up in the Top 14," added the 33-year-old, referring to the awful run that saw them lose five on the trot.
Medard got Toulouse's first try – after Picamoles had had an earlier one ruled out – as he burst through the Lyon midfield and ran in to touch down – Toby Flood converted for 7-0.
Flood added a penalty shortly afterwards for 10-0.
Lyon hit back, though and former Racing-Metro centre Fabrice Estebanez went over in the 17th minute after running onto a superbly weighted kick ahead by Stephen Brett who then converted it for 10-7.
Toulouse, though, added a second try with a glorious 80 metres counter-attack begun by Picamoles forcing a turnover.
Medard did a wonderful shimmy to break through the centre and it ultimately resulted in Clerc going over under the posts and Flood converted for 17-7.
Brett reduced the gap with a penalty before half-time to send the sides in at the break with Toulouse leading 17-10.
However, the visitors extended their lead shortly after the restart as Picamoles got the try his performance deserved and Flood converted for 24-10.
"I am very happy to be back, to score a try and I feel better than I did on my return to the first team last weekend (he played part of the European Cup game)," said Picamoles.
Flood added a penalty before the hour mark as Toulouse pulled away .
Fijian wing Timoci Matanavou ran in a brilliant solo try with Yannick Nyanga also chipping in with another try both of which Flood converted to take his tally to 16 points for the match.
Top 14 results:
Lyon 17 Toulouse 41
Brive 21 Castres 15
La Rochelle 21 Montpellier 15
Stade Francais 39 Bordeaux-Begles 22
Racing Metro 17 Oyonnax 21
Bayonne 24-13 Clermont
Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):
Clermont 10 7 0 3 242 173 3 31
Stade Francais 10 7 0 3 234 224 3 31
Toulon 9 6 0 3 265 161 4 28
Bordeaux 10 6 0 4 296 233 3 27
Montpellier 10 6 0 4 216 176 2 26
Racing-Metro 10 5 0 5 225 218 5 25
Grenoble 9 5 0 4 224 241 4 24
Toulouse 10 5 0 5 227 200 3 23
Bayonne 10 4 0 6 214 206 5 21
La Rochelle 10 4 0 6 220 295 3 19
Brive 10 4 0 6 206 266 2 18
Lyon 10 4 0 6 181 248 1 17
Oyonnax 10 3 0 7 201 226 4 16
Castres 10 3 0 7 202 286 3
Source: AFP
