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Stade Tolousain (6) 33 - 6 (6) Leinster Rugby
Stade Ernest Wallon, Toulouse
Att: 18,806
Sunday, 18 November 2007, 21:00

Old rivalries were renewed on a freezing Sunday night in Toulouse. Leinster were looking to build on an impressive performance against Leicester in round 1 and Toulouse knew that they had to up their performance in struggling to overcome Edinburgh. 

It was Leinster who drew first blood, Felipe Contepomi striking a huge penalty after Toulouse had infringed at a ruck. Leinster were dealt a blow after Chris Whitaker was injured with an apparent broken leg after a Thierry Dusautoir tackle. Almost immediately Toulouse were level, Ellisalde striking a penalty after Le Roux was adjudged to have infringed at a lineout.

Toulouse were beginning to turn the screw, and it took Rob Kearney to rescue Leinster following a Kunavore chip through denying the advancing Poitrenaud and Heymans a chance to score. Toulouse did manage to take the lead shortly after, Courrent striking a drop goal over.

Shortly before half time Contepomi struck another excellent penalty but despite Chris White playing nearly 12 minutes of added on time, there was no addition to the scoreline with Courrent missing a relatively simple penalty. The teams retired at half time tied at 6 a piece identical to the scoreline at the RDS the previous week.

Toulouse sprung new signing Byron Kelleher from the bench in the second half and it was another substitute Florian Fritz who made an instant impact. It was his good work kicking through that found Heymans who sent through Clement Poitrenaud to score close to the posts. Courrent again missed what should have been a fairly routine kick The scrum half come out half was able to add three points to add to the Toulouse scoreline on 50 minutes and five minutes later he added a try to his tally.

Kelleher had a hand in Toulouse's third try with a kick through that Heymans touched down. Chris White consulted with the Television Match Official before awarding the try.

The match was over for Leinster, but there was worse to come with Girvan Dempsey and Gordon D'Arcy following Chris Whitaker in being taken from the field injured.

Vincent Clerc's record against Irish teams is excellent and he tormented Leinster here adding an 84^th minute try. Where Leinster had done superbly well to deny Leicester a losing bonus point, here they could not prevent Toulouse securing a winning bonus point. Who knows what impact this and the many injuries will have on the rest of the campaign.

by Sarah Lennon, © 2007-11-22