Quarterfinal spot secured for Toulouse
Toulouse secured their qualification for the quarterfinals of the Heineken Cup this season with an impressive, bonus-point, 33-21 victory over Harlequins in France on Sunday evening.
To their credit Harlequins went to Toulouse with a full strength team and committed to giving it their all despite being completely out of the running for a place in the final eight.
A competitive opening quarter saw both sides miss chances from the kicking tee before, with 24 minutes on the clock, the visitors struck the first big blow. Fullback Mike Brown was the man to go over for Quins, giving them a 7-3 lead after Jean-Baptiste Elissalde had started the scoring with a penalty minutes earlier.
Elissalde added two more penalties to push the home side ahead but it was Florian Fritz try just before the break that really gave the French side some momentum.
10 minutes after the interval flank Jean Bouilhou scored Toulouse’s second try, seemingly putting them firmly in control and shifting their focus on to scoring four tries and earning a bonus-point.
French international Cedric Heymans scored try number three after 58 minutes before, with 15 minutes left, Maxime Medard got number four. Running on to a clever grubber kick, Medard, snuck round the outside and scored under the posts to wrap the game up for Toulouse.
Lions star Ugo Monye added some respectability to the scoreline by scoring two tries in the final five minutes but the job was already done for the home side by that point.
The Scorers
For Toulouse
Tries: Fritz, Bouilhou, Heymans, Medard
Pen: Elissalde 3
Cons: Elissalde 2
For Harlequins
Tries: Brown, Monye 2
Cons: Evans 3
The teams:
Toulouse:15 Maxime Medard, 14 Yves Donguy, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, 9 Byron Kelleher, 8 Shaun Sowerby, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Romain Millo-Chluski, 3 Benoit Lecouls, 2 Virgile Lacombe, 1 Jean-Baptiste Poux.
Replacements:16 William Servat, 17 Yohan Montes, 18 Daan Human, 19 Grégory Lamboley, 20 Louis Picamoles , 21 Frédéric Michalak, 22 Yann David , 23 Clément Poitrenaud,
Harlequins:15 Mike Brown, 14 David Strettle, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Nils Mordt, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Will Skinner (captain), 6 Tom Guest, 5 George Robson, 4 James Percival, 3 John Andress, 2 Tani Fuga, 1 Ceri Jones.
Replacements:16 Chris Brooker, 17 Aston Croall, 18 James Johnston, 19 Lewis Stevenson, 20 Chris Robshaw, 21 Karl Dickson, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Tom Williams,
Referee: Nigel Owens
