Ulster thrash Toulouse

Two first half tries and three more after the interval gave the home side a much-deserved 38-0 victory. It was the first time Toulouse failed to score a single point in a European game.

It puts Ulster back in contention to qualify for the knock-out stages from pool one, despite their shock defeat at home to Saracens in round one of the competition.

Toulouse never really got going in Belfast, with England international Toby Flood missing an early penalty before they lost influential No.8 Louis Picamoles when he picked up a shoulder injury.

Nick Williams then got the home side's first try when Flood failed with an interception attempt and the powerful back-row was able to force his way over the Toulouse line from close range.

Toulouse's cause was not helped when they went down to 14 men when scrumhalf Sebastien Bezy saw yellow, allowing Paddy Jackson to kick a penalty.

Flood then missed a second penalty attempt for the visitors, before the home side went down to 14 when they lost Williams to the sin bin a no-arms tackle.

But despite going a man down Ulster grabbed a second try before the break when Andrew Trimble broke the line, kicked ahead and collected the loose ball himself.

Yacouba Camara became the second Toulouse player to see yellow for a trip in the build-up to Trimble's score.

A third try for Ulster came five minutes after the restart when captain Ruan Pienaar picked out centre Luke Marshall with a perfect cross-field kick with the visitor's defence stretched.

Centre Stu McCloskey wrapped up the bonus point with half an hour still to play with a smart finish from midfield before Chris Henry added with a fifth nine minutes from time from a driving line-out.

The scorers:

For Ulster:

Tries: Williams, Trimble, L Marshall, McCloskey, Henry

Cons: Jackson 4, Humphreys

Pen: Jackson

For Toulouse: None

Teams:

Ulster: 15 Louis Ludik, 14 Andrew Trimble, 13 Luke Marshall, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 Craig Gilroy; 10 Paddy Jackson, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Chris Henry, 6 Robbie Diack, 5 Franco van der Merwe, 4 Alan O'Connor, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Rory Best (captain), 1 Kyle McCall.

Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Andy Warwick, 18 Ricky Lutton, 19 Clive Ross, 20 Roger Wilson, 21 Paul Marshall, 22 Ian Humphreys, 23 Rory Scholes.

Toulouse: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Gael Fickou, 12 Toby Flood, 11 Arthur Bonneval, 10 Luke McAlister, 9 Sébastien Bézy, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Yacouba Camara, 5 Joe Tekori, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Corey Flynn, 1 Vasil Kakovin.

Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Dorian Aldegheri, 19 Edwin Maka, 20 Gregory Lamboley, 21 Gillian Galan, 22 Jean-Marc Doussain, 23 Alexis Palisson.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)

Assistant Referees: Tim Wigglesworth (England), Paul Dix (England)

TMO: Graham Hughes (England)

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