Toulouse 33 Leinster 6:This may be something of a transitional phase at Toulouse but as ever with the three-time winners of the tournament, certain standards are retained. Playing with innate flair, tempo, power, pace and skill, they dominated from the 20-minute mark in classically French style to post a bonus-point win over a wilting Leinster.
In a ferociously attritional contest, the toll was heavy too. Chris Whitaker was carried off in the first half with a suspected broken foot and was followed in the second half by Gordon D'Arcy and Girvan Dempsey. This was significant, because tactically and in covering injuries on a night when all 14 replacements were used, the all-international Toulouse bench was vastly superior to Leinster's, which boasted one cap between them. A telling example was the early introduction of Byron Kelleher and Romain Millo-Chlusky.
Leinster floundered on a rash of handling errors and their scrum was also in difficulty, but the main problem was they could not generate go-forward ball from which the backs might have been able to apply width. Most of the ball they got was fairly static, resulting in them kicking away possession initially and running up culs-de-sac or at any rate into an aggressive line of pink jerseys.
Leinster hoped to avoid that bonus point in the end game, but they rashly ran ball from their 22 and, when turned over, were stretched sufficiently for Vincent Clerc to power through Christian Warner's tackle and earn a tight call from the video referee, given Rob Kearney, one of Leinster's few bright sparks to illuminate a dark night, appeared to have a hand under the ball.
The noisy band of Leinster supporters had made their presence felt early on but long before the end were reduced to bemused silence. Even though Toulouse spent the first 12 minutes in their own half, the home fans were banging their drums as the chant of "Tou-lou-sain" echoed around stadium, a virtual 19,500 sell-out.
Kearney and Contepomi were for the most part content to play for territory in a cagey opening but Toulouse began to cut loose at the end of the first quarter when Wright took on ball and Whitaker and Contepomi tried to keep it alive. Heymans pilfered and Toulouse countered wide.
The damage was twofold. Whitaker was stretchered off for Cillian Willis to make only his third European Cup appearance and with only a minute's rugby with Leinster in the last month. Ollie le Roux was also penalised at the resultant scrum for Elissalde to draw the sides level.
Leinster were not helping themselves with a rash of early handling errors and O'Driscoll cursed himself for fumbling a deft offload by Keith Gleeson off Gordon D'Arcy's half break.
Their kicking wasn't deep enough, Toulouse countering off Contepomi's punt as fabulous hands by Clement Poitrenaud and Cedric Heymans released Maleli Kunavore to hand off Willis, chip and chase; Kearney saving the day by fly-hacking the ball into touch. But from the ensuing lineout drive, Patricio Albacete rumbled infield for Valentin Courrent to drop a goal.
Huge hits by Jennings on Pelous and by Heaslip on Nyanga typified Leinster's aggressive defence as Contepomi drew the sides level and though Kearney was short from 60 metres with the last kick of a half lasting almost 52 minutes, 6-6 at the break was a result for Leinster.
But they needed a flying start to the second half and instead Toulouse went wide immediately with Florian Fritz crosskicking to Heymans. He beat Dempsey on the outside before passing lefthanded over three defenders for Poitrenaud to score. Though Courrent inexplicably missed the conversion, he atoned with an acutely angled penalty.
Leinster were already chasing the game, and nearly coughed up a couple of intercepts before, fatefully, Yannick Nyanga charged down Kearney's kick for Courrent to run in the soft try and add the conversion.
D'Arcy and Dempsey hobbled off with what looked like more ankle injuries, but sympathy was in short supply.
Jauzion set up gain-line ball with a strong surge from which Byron Kelleher, a half-time replacement, grubbered deftly for Heymans to score.
Had that been it, and Leinster appeared to have weathered the storm, fine - but instead they were punished further at the death.
SCORING SEQUENCE:3 mins: Contepomi pen 0-3; 23: Elissalde pen 3-3; 35: Courrent drop-goal 6-3; 38: Contepomi pen 6-6 (half-time 6-6); 42: Poitrenaud try 11-6; 50: Courrent pen 14-6; 55: Courrent try and con 21-6; 66: Heymans try, Courrent con 28-6; 84: Clerc try, Courrent con 33-6.
TOULOUSE:C Poitrenaud; V Clerc, Y Jauzion (capt), M Kunavore, C Heymans; V Courrent, J Elissalde; D Human, W Servat, J Poux, F Pelous, P Albacete, Y Nyanga, T Dusatoir, S Sowerby. Replacements: F Fritz for Kunavore (36 mins), A Vernet Basualdo for Servat (40+7 mins), B Kelleher for Elissalde (half-time), R Millo-Chlusky for Pelous (47 mins), F Maka for Dusautoir (68 mins), O Hasan for Poux (74 mins), G Lamboley for Nyanga (78 mins).
LEINSTER:G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, R Kearney; F Contepomi, C Whitaker; A Le Roux, B Jackman, S Wright, L Cullen, M O'Kelly, S Jennings, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: C Willis for Whitaker (20 mins), C Warner for D'Arcy (60 mins), L Fitzgerald for Dempsey (64 mins), C Jowitt for O'Kelly, K McLaughlin for Gleeson (both 68 mins), J Gomez for le Roux (73 mins), B Blaney for Jackson (78 mins).
Referee: Chris White (England)