Following Toulouse’s 43-40 win over Exeter Chiefs in the opening round of the Champions Cup at the Stadium de Toulouse on Sunday, here’s how we rated the six-time champions.
Toulouse player ratings v Exeter
15 Matias Remue: The man they said was the problem without Thomas Ramos turned out to be the solution. Seven defenders beaten, the most on the park by a mile, 87 metres, two tries and two assists, the second score an in-and-out and a step off his left foot that left Exeter’s cover clutching at air. The one shaft of light when Toulouse were seven down. The best thing to come out of Belgium since Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin. 9
14 Teddy Thomas: Five clean breaks, more than anyone, two turnovers, a try off the scrum shove, and a knock-on in the act of grounding that cost another. Took a yellow at 36 minutes for a deliberate knock-down with six on two outside him, and he had to do it, because there was nobody behind him. A proper afternoon’s work, but the bin cost his side 12 points in four minutes and the mark reflects it. 6
13 Kalvin Gourgues: Won the penalty try when Sam Harris took him before the ball arrived, took a head shot from Ben Hammersley late on that put Exeter down to 14, and made 13 tackles as the last specialist centre standing once two 12s had gone. Missed a few in the scramble, but he was the one still there. Very good indeed and adds to his growing reputation. 8
12 Santiago Chocobares: The coruscating run through the Exeter centres that set up the penalty try was the best piece of midfield running of the first half, and then he was gone at 24 minutes with a head knock he didn’t come back from. Not a lot of minutes, but every one of them was good. 6
11 Ange Capuozzo: An eight for the defence alone. The mid-air finish in the corner at six minutes was the highlight; the hands in the middle of the 90-metre try were the moment, but it was the covering and the chasing when Toulouse had 13 that kept them in it. 8
10 Romain Ntamack: Three from five off the tee and a missed touch-finder, which in a three-point game is the stat the review will start with. Against that, 14 tackles after moving to 12, the finish to the try of the year from 90 metres out, and the conversion of it when he’d missed the previous two. A ten’s afternoon with a 12’s tackle count. 7
9 Antoine Dupont: Moved to fly-half at 42 minutes with two 12s broken and was phenomenal there: 45 passes, 11 kicks for 272 metres, which was half of Toulouse’s kicking game on his own, the steal off Stephen Varney at 74 with timing rather than force, the pass for Remue’s second, and the back-door offload in his own 22 that started the 90-metre try. Charged down by Ross Vintcent for Will Butt’s score, and he’d be the first to say so. The rest of it is why Toulouse won. 9
The forwards
8 Théo Ntamack: The broadcaster’s Man of the Match, and it’s hard to argue. Fourteen carries with 11 of them over the gainline, 62 metres, two offloads, the break from a scrum in his own 22 that nearly produced a first-half try, the interchange with Thomas for Remue’s first, and 11 tackles for good measure. Always metres, and Galthié will be calling him this week; let’s hope he doesn’t drop the phone on his foot, because that’s how Toulouse’s injury luck is running. 9
7 Efraín Elías: Sixteen tackles and not one missed, ten carries into the thickest traffic for three metres, and a flanker’s job done without a headline in it, on whichever side Cros wasn’t. Glue of the other kind. 6
6 François Cros: The glue. On his 50th Champions Cup appearance he dropped the first restart, and then held the whole thing together. 17 tackles, second only to Dafydd Jenkins on the park, and the collision work that let a 14-man side defend at 87 per cent. After giving himself a stern ticking off for the restart error, he was Toulouse’s breakdown artist for the rest of the afternoon. A masterclass from a master. 8
5 Joel Merkler: Started at lock, the French autumn fashion, and moved to tighthead the moment Neti went, where his hips belong. Held the scrum for the next 40 minutes, won the shove that produced Thomas’s try, and carried hard in the build-up to the one that was knocked on. Ten tackles. The look that never dates. 7
4 Joshua Brennan: Crashed over after a run of Exeter offsides at 24 minutes, made ten tackles and six carries, and was off at 50 with the bench coming on by the clock rather than the scoreboard. 6
3 Dorian Aldegheri: Twenty-four minutes before Ugo Mola reshuffled the front-row around the red card. A hit-timing scrummager in a scrum that suddenly needed weight, and the right man to take off. 5
2 Thomas Lacombre: No Julien Marchand on the floor, they said, and then he won a one-man turnover at the ruck at 42 minutes with Exeter flying. Ten tackles, prominent in the carries for Brennan’s try, and the lineout went 100% on his throw. 7
1 Rodrigue Neti: A shoulder into Ross Vintcent’s head at 19 minutes, arm tucked, no attempt to wrap, and a red card that was right and ruinous. Everything that followed, the yellow, the charge-down, the 12 points in four minutes, was wired to it. Nineteen minutes and a ban to come. Credit to him for one thing, though: he went to Vintcent, apologised and shook his hand as he trudged off, which not every man in his position does. 3
Replacements: A mixed bag. Paul Graou fed the scrum for 38 minutes with Dupont at ten, kicked six times for 142 metres and never once looked rushed, and Peato Mauvaka came on at 50 and gave the hour’s hard yards the edge they needed; both were great. Benjamin Bertrand came on at loosehead when Neti went and was outstanding as the scrum held for 40 minutes. Georges-Henri Colombe, by contrast, was awful: he replaced Merkler for the last quarter and the final scrum of the afternoon melted under him, which is where Henry Slade’s kick came from. Romeo Bonnard Martin did the graft; Anthony Jelonch, the brute in reserve, got seven minutes and one tackle. Tommaso Menoncello came on for Chocobares at 24 and broke his arm in a legal clear-out at 42, which is how Dupont ended up at fly-half; Marc-Elie Kouassi filled in. 6