Toulouse discard Edinburgh's hopes

Toulouse 36 Edinburgh 10

Edinburgh’s Heineken Cup dreams were finally killed off by the streetwise superstars of Toulouse.

The visitors battled bravely for more than an hour in their quest to reach the semi-finals but in the end they had to bow to the superior pace, power and inventiveness of the champions.

The match had initially appeared to be over as a contest by the time the Frenchmen had opened up a 10-point gap with the same number of minutes left on the clock – only for Edinburgh to grab a lifeline just before the break.

But a spate of penalties early in the second half and two late tries finally knocked the stuffing out of the spirited Scots in front of a bumper 37,000 crowd at Le Stadium.

The home team snatched control from the start, punishing the Gunners for carelessly kicking away the small amount of possession they did earn.

Only some frantic defence and a couple of lucky acts of robbery by Scott Murray prevented Toulouse from breaking the deadlock until the seventh minute.

The initial damage was done by Fabien Pelous and Finau Maka, who were both blocked short of the target.

Edinburgh crept offside and stand-off Yann Delaigue was left to snap up three easy points from the penalty.

The home side kept up the momentum with Clement Poitrenaud outpacing four markers in quick succession.

Delaigue then sent a teasing chip into the danger zone, where Mike Blair cleared the immediate threat.

But seconds later, the Scots were forced to concede the first touchdown. Toulouse kept their patience to string together a series of excellent short passes, creating the time and space for breakaway forward Christian Labit to plough through.

Veteran Delaigue kept his cool to slot the conversion from an awkward angle.

Edinburgh responded positively – but fruitlessly. Brendan Laney lived up to his nickname of ‘Chainsaw’ by cutting through the defence before being chopped down just a couple of paces short of the target.

There was then an episode of high controversy when Edinburgh physio Stuart Barton became the unlikely target of an amazing outburst by Toulouse’s Irish lock Trevor Brennan.

Barton had raced to the touchline to attend to injured prop Joel Brannigan, unwisely trying to haul aside a Frenchman in the process.

Brennan dashed in to almost send the medic flying through the air and was fortunate to escape without at least a yellow card.

Instead, referee Alain Rolland issued a general warning to skippers Pelous and Todd Blackadder.

Edinburgh suffered a further setback on the half-hour mark when Scotland captain Chris Paterson limped off with a groin problem.

They shook off the blow, however, to stage a stirring end to the half which yielded a marvellous try for centre Marcus di Rollo.

Blackadder laid the platform by snaffling ruck-ball and di Rollo sent Ally Hogg clear before latching onto the return pass to dart over from 15 metres.

Laney confidently banged over the conversion to reduce the midway gap to just three points.

Toulouse were clearly stunned by Edinburgh’s rally and they looked unusually jittery after the restart with Delaigue fluffing a long-range drop-goal bid.

He made quick amends, however, by clipping over a short-range offside penalty to steady the nerves.

Then long-range specialist Cedric Heymans inflicted more grief on the Scots with a 46-metre strike after Blackadder had detached himself too early from a scrum.

Even worse was to come when Delaigue grabbed back the boot duties to add another penalty as the Gunners began to buckle under the increasing pressure.

Laney gave Edinburgh a glimmer of anticipation by clawing back three points with an angled penalty in the wake of a trip on di Rollo as he chased his own chip.

But Laney became an instant villain by committing the offside offence which enabled Delaigue to take his tally to four.

And any prospect of a dramatic late fightback was wrecked by a moment of magic from Poitrenaud, who found a new gear to leave a stream of markers clutching at air and glide across for the second and decisive try.

Delaigue added the extras – and repeated the feat after Vince Clerc squeezed in for try number three.