Gloucester cut Toulouse down to size
Two tries from flying Jonny May rounded off a thrilling encounter at Kingsholm as Gloucester clinched a consolation 34-24 victory over French giants Toulouse.
The hosts were already out of the running for a quarterfinal spot whilst four-times Champions Toulouse arrived in England looking to progress into the knock-out stage for the 13th time.
Defeat left their hopes hanging on Connacht claiming a first ever victory in the competition and that’s exactly what they did, defeating Harlequins in Galway to send Toulouse into the last eight.
The Cherry and Whites got off to the worst possible start losing prop Nick Wood to the sin-bin in the first minute, but the Kingsholm crowd were soon cheering as Jonny May grabbed the game’s first try just two minutes later.
Flyhalf Freddie Burns launched a huge up and under which Toulouse failed to deal with and Timoci Matanavou’s attempted clearance from inside his own in-goal area was charged down by May who then pounced on the ball to score.
But the scores were soon level as Toulouse captain Thierry Dusautoir had the easiest of run-ins. Dusautoir, playing in his 50th Heineken Cup match spotted acres of space around the edge of a ruck and darted clear to touch down.
Nine minutes later and Toulouse had doubled their score, Matanavou running in down the right flank after Toulouse attack had confused the Gloucester midfield, creating room for the Fijian Sevens star on the wing.
As with the first try Lionel Beauxis added the extras with the conversion and he then kicked a 17th minute penalty to stretch his side’s lead.
There was still time for a fourth first-half try at Kingsholm as May linked up with Charlie Sharples on the right wing to send Gloucester speeding into the Toulouse 22 and after coming close through Alasdair Strokosch, the ball was recycled wide to Akapusi Qera who touched down.
It was again the combination of May and Sharples which fired Gloucester into the lead early in the second period. The Toulouse defence struggled to cope with the pace of the duo as they attacked down the flanks and a simple two on one saw Sharples sprint over for his second of the evening.
A stunning break from Beauxis carved Gloucester’s defence apart and once in behind the Cherry and Whites a try looked inevitable. Simple quick ball and slight of hand created the room for Matanavou to grab his second.
A Burns penalty pushed Gloucester back into the lead with seven minutes remaining and Kingsholm then erupted as May clinched the victory five minutes before time with his second score.
The scorers:
For Gloucester:
Tries: May 2, Qera, Sharples
Cons: Burns 4
Pens: Burns 2
For Toulouse:
Tries: Dusatoir, Matanavou 2
Cons: Beauxis 2
Pens: Beauxis
The teams:
Gloucester: 15 Jonny May, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 James Simpson-Daniel, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Luke Narraway (captain), 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Alasdair Stroskoch, 5 Alex Brown, 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 Rupert Harden, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Darren Dawidiuk, 17 Dan Murphy, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Will James, 20 Matt Cox, 21 Dave Lewis, 22 Ryan Mills, 23 Henry Trinder
Toulouse: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Timoci Matanavou, 13 Yannick Jauzion, 12 Clément Poitrenaud, 11 Yves Donguy, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Louis Picamoles , 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Census Johnston, 2 William Servat, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Christopher Tolofua, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Dan Human, 19 Grégory Lamboley, 20 Jean Bouilhou 21 Jean-Marc Doussain, 22 Vincent Clerc, 23 Shaun Sowerby,
Referee: George Clancy
