Toulouse 41 Cardiff Blues 17TOULOUSE WILL face London Irish in the semi-final of the Heineken European Cup at Twickenham after a convincing victory over Cardiff Blues. The French giants scored four tries while outhalf Jean-Baptiste Elissalde kicked 18 points to keep the French flag flying in the last four of Europe.
Jason Spice and Ben Blair crossed for the Blues but they did not have the fire-power to maintain their hopes of reaching the final in Cardiff next month.
Toulouse got off to the perfect start when Maxime Medard ran onto Maleli Kunavore's kick for the opening try inside a minute. Kunavore blocked Tom Shanklin's kick as Cardiff ran their first possession and the centre scooped up the ball and hacked ahead for wing Medard to score with ease.
Elissalde stroked over the conversion and added a long-range penalty four minutes later to open a 10-point deficit that Blair failed to reduce when he pulled his first shot at goal wide.
But Cardiff were back in the game after 17 minutes when Spice squeezed over for the Blues' first score after Tom James beat two defenders to put Shanklin within touching distance of the line. Elissalde's tackle stopped Shanklin, but scrumhalf Spice picked up and dived over from close range.
Blair converted the try as well as a second penalty, either side of Elissalde's successful effort, to cut the lead to 13-10 after Cedric Heymans was shown the yellow card. The fullback deliberately infringed at a ruck after his blunder with a quickly taken lineout almost put Jamie Roberts under the posts.
Elissalde made sure Toulouse emerged unscathed from the reduction to 14 men with a snap drop-goal moments later before Spice followed Heymans into the sinbin for a similar offence.
The scrumhalf dived in after his blocked clearance, by Patricio Albacete, almost put Yannick Nyanga over on 31 minutes. But Elissalde missed the penalty from out wide on the right-hand touchline and Dai Flanagan scraped the post with a speculative drop-goal attempt to leave Toulouse 16-10 ahead at half-time.
Elissalde caught Cardiff when he switched the direction of attack from left to right, and Heymans added the speed before delivering the scoring pass to Kunavore for the second try, on 62 minutes.
Cardiff's never-say-die attitude paid off when Jamie Robinson stepped off the bench and through the Toulouse defence for Blair to score. But Toulouse possessed a gear in their motor that Cardiff could not respond to as the weight of possession took its toll with two tries in the final nine minutes.
Clerc got his 27th European Cup try with one of the easiest finishes in his career. Jean Bouilhou followed from close range three minutes from time before Heymans's drop-goal broke the 40-point mark right at the end.
TOULOUSE: Toulouse: Heymans, Clerc, Kunavore, Jauzion, Medard, Elissalde, Kelleher, Human, Servat, Perugini, Pelous, Albacete, Nyanga, Dusatoir, Sowerby. Replacements: Courrent for Elissalde (73), Bouihlou for Nyanga (57). Not used: Vernet-Basualdo, Poux, Millochlusky, Ahotaeiloa, Lamboley. Sinbinned: Heymans (27).
CARDIFF BLUES: Blair, J Roberts, Shanklin, G Thomas, James, Flanagan, Spice, Jenkins, G Williams, Filise, D Jones, Tito, Molitika, M Williams, Rush. Replacements: Morgan for Tito (52). Not used: Yapp, R Thomas, White, Rees, N Robinson, J Robinson. Sinbinned: Spice (31).
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).
