Kerins gets first Cup start
CONNACHT TOULOUSE 7 21
fiane Guitoune. Within a minute of Fainga’a going off, Toulouse had levelled the game. Toulouse had their tails up and turned 7-7 into 14-7 just before the half-time whistle when a small army of red shirts drove over the Connacht line from a lineout maul. It hadn’t levelled out any by six minutes into the second period when Pita Ahki got over after Antoine Dupont blocked Jack Carty, in much the same way Matt Healy had been caught earlier. It was fitting that Dupont should have been the man to create the opportunity for he had given Connacht trouble off the breakdown all day.
Yoann Huget (yellow) and Zack Holmes (red) were both carded for separate challenges on Tiernan O’Halloran as the game entered its final minutes but Connacht couldn’t score. Toulouse cement their quarter-final place while Connacht’s campaign finishes with their last pool game with Montpellier in France on Sunday (3:15pm).
CONNACHT: T O’Halloran; N Adeolokun (J Porch 69) B Aki, T Daly, M Healy; J Carty (D Horwitz 76), S Kerins (C Blade 46); P McAllister (D Buckley 57), T McCartney (D Heffernan 46), F Bealham (D Robertson-McCoy 53), U Dillane (J Maksymiw ht), G Thornbury, P Boyle (E McKeon 63), J Butler (C), C Fainga’a (yc16-26)
TOULOUSE: T Ramos; A Bonneval (Y Huget 64; yc 73)), S Guitoune, P Ahki (R Ntamack 77), C Kolbe; Z Holmes (yc 74), A Dupont (S Bezy 64); C Castets (R Neti 51), J Marchand (P Mauvaka 51), C Faumuina (D Aldegheri 51), F Vertaeghe (R Arnold 64), J Tekori (1121), R Elstadt, S Tolofua (A Placines 69), J Kaino (C).
REFEREE: L Pearce (England)