Connacht head coach Andy Friend was proud of his side’s performance despite slipping to a 32-17 Champions Cup defeat against Toulouse.

A brave Connacht effort, which looked like repeating their shock 2013 win here, came up short in the end as Andy Friend’s men left Toulouse without a point to show for their efforts.

It was an unusual signing and even more strange departure with Pita Ahki making just three starts for Connacht in his only season at the Sportsground. Before he had hardly laced his boots in Galway he was signed by Toulouse.

An armed man has taken four hostages in a store on the outskirts of the southern city of Toulouse in France.

Leinster refuse to be a team that limits their eggs to the one basket.

Toulouse overcame the first-half dismissal of Zack Holmes to beat Racing 92 22-21 in a thrilling Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final.

Peter Jackson looks back at the weekend's Champions Cup action.

The marriage between southern hemisphere star and Top 14 suitor isn’t always harmonious.

To some, Leinster’s defeat to Toulouse last October is a negative memory— a millstone that could hamper their prospects of qualifying from Pool 1.

It will take just over an hour by air for the Racing 92 players to fly to Toulouse for Sunday’s important Top 14 game at the Stade Ernest Wallon, writes Ronan O’Gara.

There isn’t a club in Europe that can match Toulouse for tradition and history but the French giants travel to Limerick this week weighed down by the woes of the current generation rather than the haul of silverware that once made them the most feared side on the continent.

You get the impression from listening to Jaco Taute that the night before Munster meet Toulouse he might well be like an excited eight-year-old on Christmas Eve.

Scrum-half James Hart will have more than a passing interest in Munster’s clash with Toulouse as the side he will be joining in the summer battles it out in a Champions Cup quarter-final against the side he will face for Racing 92 in two weeks.

Nathan Hughes scored a dramatic last-gasp try with less than two minutes remaining.

Connacht made a big statement on their return to the European Champions Cup with a thrilling 23-21 comeback win over Toulouse at the Sportsground.

The Ulster men had to withstand a second-half Toulouse fight-back.

The French side couldn't even muster a score in reply.

“Toulouse know it’s a real battle for that second place, and you never know what could happen if we do win.“

"It's a huge challenge for us, but the boys have shown great character and we'll step up to the plate."

When Munster’s Donncha O’Callaghan saw the dejected picture of himself on the front page of yesterday’s Irish Examiner following his team’s Heineken Cup semi-final loss to Toulon he thought one thing — I’ve ugly hands.

They came, they saw a sea of red — and were duly conquered.

So the mad Munster scramble for tickets and flights begins, after Leinster bowed out in Toulon.

Forget the doom and gloom that followed Munster into this Heineken Cup quarter-final with four-time champions Toulouse like a dark shadow.

The message from the Munster camp this week in anticipation of today’s Heineken Cup quarter-final may have been delivered in a variety of tones but it all boiled down to the same thing: It will take their best performance of the season to give them any hope of beating Toulouse this afternoon.

There was good news for Munster fans as captain Peter O’Mahony made it through the training unscathed.