Electric Toulouse put on Kingspan clinic to down lacklustre Ulster

ELECTRIC: Toulouse’s Antoine Dupont scores the third try of the game. Pic: Ryan Byrne, Inpho

Ulster 24 Toulouse 48

Winning in Belfast for a third time in four seasons, an electric Toulouse were simply far too good for Ulster at Kingspan Stadium.

The French side ran in six tries across the opening 62 minutes of this Champions Cup contest before pulling up long before the finish line.

Ulster did briefly look set to claim at least a point after a pair of late tries left them chasing a try bonus, but instead, the game concluded with Toulouse's seventh on a night when they were again inspired by their superstar scrum-half Antoine Dupont.

His imminent departure for Sevens and the Olympics is the only question mark around the five-time winners who have taken maximum points from Pool 2, while for Dan McFarland's men, all now rests on next weekend's trip to face Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop with victory a necessity.

Boosted by three straight wins coming into the fixture, a run that started with a victory here over Racing 92 last month, the northern province had found form over the festive season and knew victory would have had them with one foot in the knock-out stages for the fifth time in the past six seasons.

The return of James Hume from injury after missing the victory over Leinster in the RDS brought another in-form player into the starting side, even if that was offset by the loss of Irish international hooker Rob Herring during training this week.

Ulster had made plenty of early running, looking to stretch Toulouse with passes out the back, but will have known their French visitors only needed a sniff.

In the end, they mercilessly extinguished the challenge of their hosts.

Powerful scrummaging yielded an early penalty that advanced the five-time winners into Ulster territory and, attacking off the set-piece, Thomas Ramos' inch-perfect kick to Matthis Lebel saw the winger spectacularly dive over in the corner.

Ramos added the conversion to make it 7-0, although Ulster quickly struck back with a penalty from the boot of John Cooney.

As the first quarter neared its conclusion, that effort was cancelled out by another successful strike from Ramos off the tee and the French side would then assert their authority with two quick-fire tries.

First, a maul that had already been repelled at close range once was driven over with Peato Mauvaka the man dotting down at the base before Antoine Dupont again crossed at Ravenhill.

Having broken Ulster hearts here in a last-16 clash two years ago, the scrum-half again inked his name onto the scoresheet, going over after Anthony Jelonch and Mauvaka had bulldozed their way through a too-flimsy rearguard.

Nineteen points behind, Ulster were teetering but to their credit, they ended the half in emphatic fashion. 

After the industrious Nick Timoney forced a knock-on out of Dupont, an attack that seemed to be fizzling was taken on by Hume with Toulouse surrendering a penalty five metres out. 

Stopping the quick tap at source, Tom Stewart took matters into his own hands, powering past Jelonch and Cyril Baille for his seventh try of another prolific season.

If there was a sense that Ulster needed the first score of the second-half if they were to mount a comeback, then Toulouse emphatically shut the door with a razor-sharp period after the restart.

With Ulster juggling their pack after losing a second back-rower of the game to injury when Sean Reffell hobbled off, the French megastars glided effortlessly through the gears.

Three tries in ten second-half minutes saw Ulster go from clinging to their opponents' coattails to being left in the dust.

Dupont and Mauvaka both scored their second of the evening before being hauled off to prepare for bigger battles ahead and number eight Alexandre Roumat then left Ulster facing up to a rout.

When replacement back-three player Will Addison went over in response it looked like little more than gloss to a lop-sided scoreline, but when Nick Timoney followed him over, hope of a potentially valuable try-bonus flickered.

A lost line-out and penalised scrum would conclude their last attack on a frustrating note, however, and when Toulouse ended the game with an exclamation-point seventh try, Ulster had long since realised their hopes of progression rested upon next week's trip to Harlequins.

Ulster: M Lowry: R Baloucoune, J Hume, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; B Burns, J Cooney: S Kitshoff, T Stewart, T O'Toole; K Treadwell, I Henderson (c): D Ewers, S Reffell, N Timoney.

Replacements: J Andrew (for Stewart, 54), A Warwick (for Kitshoff, 64), M Moore (for O'Toole, 54), A O'Connor (for Reffell, 41), M Rea (for Ewers, 7), N Doak (for Cooney, 54), W Addison (for Stockdale, 58).

Stade Toulousain: B Kinghorn; J Cruz Mallia, D Delibes, P Ahki, M Lebel; T Ramos, A Dupont (c); C Baille, P Mauvaka, D Aldegheri; R Arnold, E Meafou; F Cros, A Jelonch; A Roumat.

Replacements: J Marchand (for Mauvaka, 54), D Ainu'u (for Baille, 50), N Laulala (for Aldegheri, 40), J Brennan (for Roumat, 58), J Willis (for Jelonch, 54), P Graou (for Dupont, 69), S Chocobares (for Ahki, 56), S Bituniyata (for Ramos, 58).

Referee: M Carley (Eng) 

Player of the Match: Antoine Dupont