Toulouse hit the turbos to cruise clear of Sharks
FIVE-time winners Toulouse booked their place in the semi-finals with a late flurry of tries to power past the Sharks at Stade Ernest Wallon.
After constant lead changes in the first hour of the match, Toulouse closed the game out in rampant fashion, scoring four tries in the final 10 minutes as Thomas Ramos racked up 29 points in the win.
England star Jack Willis, in the back row for Toulouse, said: “It was a tough one to start with, the first half was pretty attritional but we managed to start grinding them down and dominated them up front and then the backs started to open up in space.”
And looking forward to a semi-final against Leinster, Willis added: “It’s an incredibly big game for me. It’s the first team I’ll have played in a Heineken Cup semi-final. We know how strong we can be and Leinster are a hell of a team but we definitely want to go after that game and try and achieve something this season.”
There was a breathless start to proceedings yesterday as both sides had golden chances to open the scoring but were denied by some resilient defence.
The visitors fed off their positive start and once Juan Cruz Mallia was sin-binned for high contact on Makazole Mapimpi, the Sharks grew in stature and Curwin Bosch slotted the resulting penalty to give the South Africans an early lead.
However, Toulouse weren’t fazed and came close to scoring a try for the ages. But after a silky backline move, Matthis Lebel’s offload drifted forwards to let the Sharks off the hook.
Then came a moment of magic from the visitors. Minutes after missing a penalty, Bosch launched a devastating counter-attack from inside the Sharks’ 22, storming up over halfway before linking up with Grant Williams who showed a lightning-quick turn of pace to score.
But the French side’s grip on the game then tightened to end the half. After Ramos added another penalty, a stunning backline move saw Mallia get on the outside of the Sharks’ blitz defence to score in the corner.
Ramos then drained a third penalty to give Ugo Mola’s side a fourpoint lead at half-time.
Toulouse’s momentum snowballed after the break as a wonderful move down the short side set Mallia away before the Argentinian linked up with Dupont who delivered the final pass for Ramos to saunter over untouched.
The South Africans were resolute. And after a barrage of attacking raids, they registered their second try as Lukhanyo Am’s delightful bullet pass found full-back Boeta Chamberlain who sliced through Toulouse’s defensive line to score.
But from there, the Sharks began to melt away under the blistering heat. A Bosch penalty drew the Sharks back within one score before Peato Mauvaka kickstarted the late Toulouse blitz. He latched onto Dupont’s outrageous offload to score before the scrum-half turned provider for the third time of the game two minutes later.
Dupont then notched his fourth try assist, unleashing Arthur Retiere to score after the hosts shredded the Sharks’ short side defence apart.
Romain Ntamack’s stunning solo score rounded off the late avalanche of points.