It was expected that a rebuilding Ulster would struggle to contain the might of the defending European and Top14 champions in their Champions Cup opener, but Richie Murphy’s young stars were handed a painful lesson in their development by Toulouse.
Despite the wet and dreary conditions in southern France, which served as an accurate summary of the province’s mood at the final whistle, Ugo Mola’s men ran rampant in scoring nine tries to condemn Ulster to their heaviest ever European defeat of the professional era at the Stade Ernest-Wallon.
Toulouse had the bonus point before the 27th minute and were keeping up with the clock at half-time by racing into a 40-14 lead as they started the defence of their title in perfect fashion, easing off after the restart to ease to the success.
But for Murphy and his young charges, they will have to lick their wounds and do some soul-searching after entering the history books in the wrong fashion, while they failed to take anything from the game despite clearly targeting an offensive bonus point, unable to find the fourth try that would have sent them home with something.
What will stick most with the head coach, though, is likely that so much of their pain was self-inflicted. While Toulouse were as lethal as expected, and Antoine Dupont was his usual dangerous self, Ulster did not help themselves with a raft of first-half errors that gifted the opposition field position again and again, as well as allowing Jack Willis to run rampant at the breakdown.
That being said, when they fell behind just 99 seconds in to some magic from the talismanic scrum-half, it was all down to the home side’s irrepressible quality.
Dupont was the orchestrator, his dancing feet across the face of the Ulster defence enabling the hosts to score off their second phase in possession as he rode the tackle and sent Santiago Chocobares haring away and the Argentine fed Matthis Lebel on the wing for the acrobatic finish.
Indeed, the clock hadn’t even ticked over to the ninth minute before Toulouse had their second, Ulster unable to capitalise on an attacking line-out in the 22 at one end and two dominant mauls from the Frenchmen ending in Romain Ntamack sniping over.
Having been under the cosh for the opening ten minutes, it was something of a shock when Ulster were the next to strike.
Admittedly, it was Toulouse’s own indiscipline that granted the visitors the attacking platform they needed rather than Ulster’s own attacking threat, Alexandre Roumat too eager at a ruck just inside his own half, but McCormick was abrasive when picking and going from close range to get the score.
But Murphy warned in the lead-up to the game that mistakes would cost his team and so they proved. Ulster failed to handle Ntamack’s restart and only a handful of phases later Emmanuel Meafou was over the line to effectively render McCormick’s try moot.
It looked like Toulouse had their bonus point just 20 minutes in when Ntamack dived over off a scrum for his second, only for it to be called back for the fly-half encroaching too far on the set-piece and actually putting himself offside, but the reprieve was short-lived.
Once again it was an Ulster error that led to the hosts’ fourth try, Aidan Morgan kicking a penalty dead from halfway as he tried to bite off too much of the touchline, and another wonderful handling move sent Ange Capuozzo over for the fourth score after just 27 minutes.
And two more errors would allow the home side to keep racking up the points and break the 40-mark at the interval, an unprotected ball at the back of the ruck gleefully seized upon by Léo Banos and after Lebel was felled inches shy of the line following a kick through from Dupont, it was the scrum-half himself who dove over, with Meafou finding his second from close range on the stroke of half-time after James McNabney knocked on the restart.
In between those scores, Ulster had found a second of their own, working their way into the Toulouse 22 and, off penalty advantage, Morgan’s skip pass sent Stewart Moore under the posts untouched.
Unfortunately for Ulster, by the time Toulouse started to make handling errors the game was already well out of sight, another potentially dangerous attacking position early in the second half spoiled by Pierre-Louis Barassi’s pass to Capuozzo going forward.
But the hosts could always rely on Ulster to keep making the mistakes that would give them opportunities and eventually one stuck, Banos pawing an Ulster line-out back on their side and Toulouse were off to the races, Barassi feeding Lebel in space down the wing and one pass back inside had Chocobares over the line.
But the French galacticos would save their best for Dupont’s last action of the game before he was replaced on the hour mark, the masterful magician firing a pinpoint perfect crossfield kick for Capuozzo to race onto, his sliding finish for Toulouse’s eighth of the game bringing the crowd to its feet in applause.
By this stage Ulster had unloaded their international contingent from the bench and it looked like that might yield some kind of reward when Iain Henderson went over for their third, breaking the tackle of Barassi to dive over the line from close range to at least set up a chance at the bonus point but it never came.
Instead, Toulouse would add one more to make it a record defeat, Tom O’Toole sacking a maul as it motored towards the line with the clock in the red, referee Adam Leal going under the posts for the penalty try – and a yellow card for the prop – and Ulster’s miserable day ended in dismal fashion.
Toulouse: T Ramos; A Capuozzo, P-L Barassi, S Chocobares (P Costes 56), M Lebel; R Ntamack (J C Mallia 62), A Dupont (P Graou 60); D Ainu’u (R Neti 49), P Mauvaka (J Marchand 45), D Aldegheri (J Merkler 49); T Flament, E Meafou (J Brennan 60); J Willis (T Ntamack 58), L Banos, A Roumat.
Ulster: S Moore; W Kok, B Carson (J Postlethwaite 22), S McCloskey, M Lowry; A Morgan (D Shanahan 58), N Doak; A Warwick (E O’Sullivan 58), J McCormick (R Herring 40), S Wilson (T O’Toole 40); A O’Connor (I Henderson 58), H Sheridan; Matty Rea (C Izuchukwu 52), Marcus Rea, J McNabney (N Timoney 52).
Yellow card: Tom O’Toole (80′)
Man of the Match: Jack Willis
Referee: Adam Leal (England)
There’s two sides to this. Toulouse were superb. At times they played sensational rugby in difficult conditions.
By stark contrast, Ulster were dreadful. They were totally overwhelmed by the European champions
Ulster are now just one try of a bonus point
Ulster lose a line-out and Toulouse break from 50m to score. Chocobares is the man to cross the line.
Poor stuff from Ulster
Meafou scores his second from close range