EUROPEAN CUP: TOULOUSE - 43 LEINSTER - 7:In an unnerving throwback to bad old days of Irish sorties to France, a classy Toulouse gradually played with their tails up and strutted their stuff to hit Leinster with a five-try salvo in the third-quarter. Only the sun, a band and a cockerel were missing at a suitably grim and grey Stade des Sept Deniers.
The heavy load of the last fortnight and a host of injuries to those not available and to some who were sent out in a distinctly patchwork Leinster side all took their toll. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and mindful that, even in defeat, four tries would earn a home quarter-final, Leinster lost their shape in the only option available to them, desperate catch-up.
Leinster gave it a go, gambling on Brian O'Driscoll at outhalf and Adam Magro at outside centre, and on a quick start, but they couldn't break through and it was a minor miracle of resilience that they kept a free-flowing Toulouse to just a Yann Delaigue penalty by the break.
While O'Driscoll has played there before, much of a whole season in fact with UCD, it was only decided upon the day beforehand, after the backs had gone better with O'Driscoll at 10 in a training run on Friday.
Toulouse, by comparison, had nothing to play for but their pride, though in front of a demanding, 6,746 crowd that was sufficient spur for the AC Milan of European rugby. As Matt Williams had forecast, Toulouse threw the ball around with an abandon almost Barbarian in its class.
Xavier Garbajosa might have had a hat-trick of tries in the first quarter but for try-saving tackles by Adam Magro, Reggie Corrigan and Girvan Dempsey.
Toulouse were staying on their feet and off-loading in the tackle better, and their handling, running angles from deep and support play created more continuity and momentum.
A brilliant passage of rugby from a turnover when Brian O'Meara wasn't at the base of a ruck inside the Toulouse 22 saw them work the ball up field, and another try was denied by O'Driscoll's ankle tap on Garbajosa.
Eventually, Toulouse opted for a shot at goal and Delaigue scored the only points of the first half in the 26th minute.
Though this week's Irish disease continued unabated - Leinster botched three lineouts in a row at one point - Leinster were putting together some inventive platforms from set-pieces. But Toulouse always seemed to have plenty of numbers outside and Leinster rarely went beyond third phase.
The Toulouse backs came on to the ball with greater depth, though referee Steve Leyshon's excessive harshness on not releasing in the tackle didn't help either side.
A brilliant pick-up and jinking run by O'Driscoll, strongly supported by Trevor Brennan, provided a case in point when the ball was turned over in contact after Shane Horgan took it up the middle. The target runners, Horgan and Victor Costello, just couldn't break through and, by comparison, Toulouse's backs were coming onto the ball with greater depth. Forced to check, O'Driscoll manufactured a drop goal attempt and the ball drifted wide to leave it a mildly astonishing 3-0 at the break.
On the resumption a miscontrolled scrum forced O'Driscoll to concede a five-metre scrum. Dubiously given a second put in after Garbajosa had been turned in the tackle, at the second attempt Christian Labit squirmed out of Brennan's tackle and Finau Maka followed up to plough over. The floodgates opened.
Within three minutes the outstanding Delaigue put full back Clement Poitreneau away and Labit was the link for Heymans to score. Four minutes later it was Garbajosa who burst through onto Delaigue's deftly delayed pass, and Maka, Nicolas Jeanjean, Labit and Poitrenaud handled before Heymans scored a sweeping try in the corner.
Heymans added another blindside try from deep four minutes later, and from the restart Michalak probed the blindside and Franck Tournaire's forward pass sent Michel Marfaing scampering away to take Dempsey on the outside.
There was no let up, and on the hour Delaigue chipped and gathered to send Heymans over for his hat-trick.
Moments before the Toulouse speedster Jeanjean had collared O'Driscoll from behind after a nimble break-out by the latter, and typical of Leinster's day Reggie Corrigan's kick ahead drifted over the dead ball line. At least Costello had the consolation of converting one chance with a straightforward score off the base of a five-metre scrum.
Alas, forced to try anything from anywhere, Leinster coughed up a sixth try when Emile Ntamack intercepted O'Meara's attempted cut-out pass to O'Driscoll.
A warm round of mutual applause between visiting team and home crowd was scant comfort.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 26 mins: Delaigue pen 3-0; 45: Maka try, Delaigue con 10-0; 48: Heymans try, Delaigue con 17-0; 52: Heymans try, Delaigue con 24-0; 54: Marfaing try, Delaigue con 31-0; 60: Heymans try 36-0; 73: Costello try, O'Meara con 36-7; 75: Ntamack try, Michalak con 43-7.
TOULOUSE: C Poitreneau; N Jeanjean, C Desbrosse, X Garbajosa, C Heymans; Y Delaigue, F Michalak; J Poujade, Y Bru, F Tournaire, H Miorin, F Pelous, J Boulhou, C Labit, F Maka. Replacements: B Lecouls for Poujade (27 mins), D Lacroix for Maka, M Marfaing for Garbajosa (both 53 mins), J Fillol for Michalak (64 mins).
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; G D'Arcy, A Magro, S Horgan, D Hickie; B O'Driscoll, B O'Meara; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, P Wallace, L Cullen, B Casey, T Brennan, V Costello, K Gleeson. Replacements: A McCullen for Costello (25-31, 37-39 mins) and for Brennan (74 mins), P Coyle for Corrigan (67 mins), B Willis for Magro (72 mins), G Hickie for Byrne, L Toland for Gleeson, S Keogh for Dempsey, P McKenna for D'Arcy (all 78 mins).
Referee: S Leyshon (England).
