Another lop-sided pool game and a further reminder of life’s fluctuating fortunes. Five years ago Exeter were beating Toulouse en route to winning the Champions Cup and putting the seal on one of English team sport’s great Cinderella tales. These days the gap between the teams is such a yawning chasm that the French visitors had a bonus point wrapped up after just 35 minutes.
To be fair to Exeter, the defending champions are in a sufficiently rich vein of form in this competition that it almost doesn’t matter whom they are playing against. Having topped 60 points at home to Ulster, Toulouse were once again in irresistible mood with the peerless Antoine Dupont artfully pulling the strings in a 10-try masterclass.
Simply to watch Dupont play live is a privilege right now and, at times, he turned the Chiefs’ players into virtual spectators as well. France’s finest were 35-7 up by half-time, their dexterity and connectivity a joy to behold. It was at least a couple of levels up pace-wise from the tempo of the average Premiership side and underlined why Toulouse are the team to beat in this season’s tournament.
“There were a few things they did that were undefendable,” confirmed Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby. From the Chiefs’ struggling perspective, though, this record tournament thrashing was the most sobering of pre-Christmas outcomes. Sacking their defence coach has not, on this evidence, solved all their problems and they would have been buried without trace without a brace of spirited tries from the left-wing Tommy Wyatt. No one expected them to win this game but this was the highest number of points anyone has scored against them at Sandy Park and one or two of Toulouse’s scores were painfully soft.
Bautista Bernasconi’s late try condemned Bath to an agonising 22-21 defeat at Benetton in Pool 2. The Premiership leaders, who had Louis Schreuder and Max Ojomoh yellow-carded, led 21-17 at the Stadio Monigo courtesy of tries from Niall Annett, Josh Bayliss and Thomas du Toit, all of them converted by Orlando Bailey, with a minute remaining. However, the hooker Bernasconi crossed at the death to add to Rhyno Smith’s double either side of Louis Lynagh’s touchdown and Tomas Albornoz’s only successful kick to snatch victory.
Jamie George was among the scorers as Saracens made Stade Français pay for indiscipline with a 28-17 Pool 3 win at the Stade Jean Bouin. He, Liam Williams and Theo Dan all crossed with George’s 45th-minute effort and Dan’s seven minutes from time coming with the hosts, who scored through Peniasi Dakuwaqa and Leo Barr, down to 14 men as 13 points from the boot of Fergus Burke saw the visitors home comfortably.
In Pool 4, Glasgow Warriors came up just short as they went down 30-29 at Toulon. Johnny Matthews’ late try, which was converted by George Horne after Josh McKay and Olujare Oguntibeju had gone over for the visitors, dragged them to within a point of the French side, who prevailed courtesy of Leicester Fainga’anuku’s double and Brian Alainu’uese’s try despite yellow cards for Baptiste Serin, Lewis Ludlam and Marius Doman. PA Media
At least there was a decent pre-Christmas crowd in, optimistically hoping Exeter might end their barren run in major competitions this season against the side they beat in the 2020 semi-final. There were eight survivors from the Toulouse squad compared with just two from the Chiefs but Dupont, among the returnees along with his half-back partner Romain Ntamack, is the best player in the world these days and his teammates are also ascending to another plane.
In addition to Dupont they also have the breakdown threat of Jack Willis, who had another of those games that make his unavailability for England all the more frustrating. When they have the ball, furthermore, the lines of running, offloading and appreciation of space can combine to make them almost unplayable when the muse is with them, as it was in a one-sided first 40 minutes.
Dupont had a try on the board after just nine minutes, already thinking and moving quicker than anyone around him. An all-too-easy maul score for François Cros swiftly made it 14-0 and even when Exeter briefly had Toulouse on the back foot it proved an illusion. Out of nowhere Pierre-Louis Barassi burst clear straight up the middle of the field before a subsequent mazy run from the energetic Matthis Lebel secured a third try under the posts.
It came as a slight surprise, then, when Exeter stole a try back, the persevering Wyatt sprinting clear following Stu Townsend’s scoring pass. Toulouse, though, simply strolled back up the other end and bagged two more tries before the interval, the first for Thibaud Flament after more good work from Dupont out wide before Barassi exposed the absence of Townsend in the sin-bin to touch down his side’s fifth.
Only in the third quarter did the game’s momentum shift momentarily as Wyatt raced down the left for his second and Josh Hodge, despite a hint of a forward pass in the build-up, added a third try. The reappearance of the Wales captain Dafydd Jenkins for the first time this season was another modest plus but Manny Feyi-Waboso, singled out earlier this year by Dupont as his favourite English player, had precious few chances to live up to his billing.
Nor was it a day for too many other Chiefs to remember with affection as the 22-year-old Théo Ntamack, another highly promising member of the great Toulouse family dynasty, made his mark with a galloping score and Scotland’s Blair Kinghorn contributed one try and had a second disallowed when he lost control in the act of diving for the corner.
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Good luck, certainly, to any team intending to beat Toulouse with their top stars involved. They might even be as complete a side as Sandy Park has ever hosted. And next up for the Chiefs? A six-day turnaround and a trip to improving Sale this Saturday night. All the Devonians want for Christmas, right now, is a win to relieve their midwinter blues.
