Try for Toulouse: Louis Picamoles
Toulouse needed a dose of good luck to retain their Top 14 unbeaten home record on Friday, scraping past Biarritz 19-14 at Stade Ernest Wallon.
Biarritz are only the second team to claim a losing bonus point in the Ville Rose this season but will head back to the Basque coast reflecting on what could have been a shock win had Welsh wing Aled Brew not knocked-on in the act of crossing the tryline on the hour mark.
It was yet another unconvincing display from Toulouse, who started well but looked flustered when under pressure in the second half.
All is clearly not well at the defending Top 14 champions and mid-week reports have suggested tension within the camp following last weekend's elimination from Europe.
Player-coach William Servat is the centre of speculation as it rumoured management turned down his request to return as a full-time player.
Who would never has guessed there was trouble behind the scenes when Toulouse raced to an early 13-0 lead thanks to a try from number eight Louis Picamoles at the back of a rolling maul and a couple of penalties from Lionel Beauxis.
But Biarritz bounced back with try from fly-half Julien Peyrelongue on the 30-minute after a break from scrum-half Yann Lesgourgues.
The visitors had a handful of opportunities to snatch victory in the second half, but were paid to pay for their errors as Luke McAlister slotted a late penalty to secure the win for Toulouse.
The scorers:
For Toulouse:
Try: Picamoles
Con: Beauxis
Pens: Beauxis 3, McAlister
Yellow card: Medard
For Biarritz:
Try: Peyrelongue
Pens: Peyrelongue 2, Yachvili
Toulouse: 15 Clement Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Florian Fritz, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Yoann Huget, 10 Lionel Beauxis, 9 Jean marc Doussain, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Romain Millo-Chlusky, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Christopher Tolofua, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp,
Replacements: 16 Gary Botha, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Patricio Albacete, 19 Yannick Nyanga, 20 Luke Burgess, 21 Luke Mcalister, 22 Maxime Medard, 23 Yohan Montes.
Biarritz: 15 Marcelo Bosch, 14 Takudzwa Ngwenya, 13 Benoit Baby, 12 Seremaia Burotu, 11 Aled Brew, 10 Julien Peyrelongue, 9 Yann Lesgourgues, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Wenceslas Lauret, 6 Magnus Lund, 5 Pelu ian Taele, 4 Erik Lund, 3 Benedict Broster, 2 Arnaud Heguy, 1 Fabien Barcella.
Replacements: 16 Jean philippe Genevois, 17 Thomas Synaeghel, 18 Thibault Dubarry, 19 Raphael Lakafia, 20 Dimitri Yachvili, 21 Jean pascal Barraque, 22 Charles Gimenez, 23 Eugene Van staden.
Referee: Laurent Cardona
Comments
pierredelot1 says...
Definately a stroke of luck. Toulouse set off well and at 13-0 they looked to have got the game in the bag. That was probably the problem and they switched off especially in defence. Amazing to see so many French Squad members out on the Park which rarely got above 4 degrees and there were replacements a plenty. But some fairly hefty bangs and Clerc looked in deep trouble after hopping to a loose ball to prevent another Biarritz score. Beauxis started well and then went right off script. Physically Beauxis appears to have dropped a couple of stone, hopefully to speed up but he rarely ran, just giving it welly mixed in with the odd pass. Both teams ran a lot of the ball though on a night when hands must have been numb. A lucky escape this one for Stade. No one in the crowd would begrudge William returning to add discipline, drive and organisation to the ruck and maul, at present they seem to lack cohesion and a real will to win.
Posted 13:23 26th January 2013