Papers cite Michalak-baiters

"Fissures and cracks". That's how Toulouse daily newspaper La Dépêche du Midi described the capitulation of the European champions at Le Stadium on Saturday. Rather than criticise the local team, however, the French media heaped praise on Leinster.

Leading the plaudits were the national sports daily L'Equipe and Le Journal du Dimanche.

Frederick Michalak was not so fortunate. Leinster, mainly via Keith Gleeson, targeted the French international outhalf all afternoon. The crowd turned on him but strangely, the press held their tongue - despite numerous flaky displays this season.

"The Burden of Michalak," read a headline in La Dépêche du Midi. The same comment piece condemned the jeering faction of the Toulousain crowd who rounded on Michalak as he left the field after 73 minutes. "To those who believed it was good to follow the Parisian method and to whistle Michalak, it is necessary to prefer those, more numerous fortunately, who applauded Leinster".

Team coach Guy Noves took a similar stance by refusing to comment on the sledging of Michalak. He stated that even the most gifted players had their poor days. "I will keep my criticism for the players. Leinster were very good and we were very bad," he stated simply.

"Let the people judge the whistles. It is unjust to focus solely on Fred and not others who also made errors. As a player, I spent 13 years on the field, and I know perfectly well that no one can be excellent at all times. If the players were always at their best, it would become boring and no one would come to see them play.

"Against Leinster the mountain was too high. We made too many mistakes, far more than usual and there was an obvious lack of clear thinking in the closing stages." Noves said.

A backlash is certain when they meet arch-rivals Biarritz and Stade Français in their upcoming domestic fixtures. "The beast is injured but she is not dead," Noves added.

L'Equipe christened Denis Hickie "the assassin" after his length-of-the-field try, while Shane Horgan's try was described as the "death-blow" for Toulouse.

"Toulouse gave up the title they have already won three times, unforgivably in their own stronghold, which is all the more unpleasant and regrettable because, if they had progressed, the semi-final would have been again played in the Pink City," the paper noted.

Despite being widely tipped to lose at Lansdowne Road, Perpignan received a sterner critique due to the manner in which they let Munster off the hook.

L'Equipe came down hard on the Catalans, citing the wayward place-kicking of Mathieu Bourret late on and the bouts of indiscipline which resulted in yellow cards for Nicolas Mas and Nicolas Durand.

"In the mythical stage of Dublin, Lansdowne Road, where Leinster take up residence for special occasions, Perpignan performed rather well during the first half while intelligently countering the rather disjointed attacks of their opponents.

"But the second period saw the Catalans make an incredible amount of errors and faults, before offering Munster four straight penalties, while Bourret lost his way. Only then was the absence of the captain Bernard Goutta, due to a last-minute dental infection, felt the most as his team-mates were guilty of indiscipline on such a level that it led to the sin-binning of Nicolas Durand."

Fissures and cracks aplenty.