Four-try Toulouse overwhelm Ospreys

Neath-Swansea Ospreys 11 Toulouse 29

Wing Vincent Clerc claimed a first-half try hat-trick as reigning champions Toulouse went back to the top of Heineken Cup Pool Two at The Gnoll tonight.

It was resounding victory by the French outfit which leaves the Ospreys out of Europe and pointless after four matches.

This was the second time the Ospreys had lost to Toulouse in seven days and means they have now suffered nine defeats on the trot.

A poor line-out and bad execution in the key areas let the Ospreys down.

While Toulouse look forward to a showdown for the pool leadership against Edinburgh on January 31, the Ospreys have only the Celtic League to look forward to.

Toulouse pounced for the first of their tries after only three minutes when centre Benoit Baby got possession in broken play and sent Clerc over with the Ospreys’ tackling less than impressive.

The French side enjoyed a period of sustained pressure but could only come away with a drop goal, a left-footed effort from outside-half Yann Delaigue, which put the champions 10-0 ahead.

The Ospreys got themselves back in the contest with two penalties from Gavin Henson, who had moved from full-back to outside-half for this clash.

But all the good work was undone as Toulouse scored their second try after 22 minutes with Baby and Clerc combining in the same way as they had for the first.

The Ospreys did some good things through Shane Williams, Adrian Durston and Jonathan Thomas but just were not creating scoring positions.

Toulouse showed them how to do it when Baby, the creator of the first try, scored the third himself when going over on the right, taking advantage of the unmarshalled blindside.

Try number four, and Clerc’s hat-trick, arrived a minute before half-time following good work by full-back Nicolas Jeanjean to leave the Welsh region trailing 29-6.

Despite three awful line-outs from the Ospreys they eventually crossed the line through an individual effort by Henson.

The Ospreys thought they had scored a second try when Dave Tiueti went in but referee Chris White disallowed it.