Toulouse qualifies for the finals by dominating Sale without shining
Stade Toulousain is qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions Cup after its victory in England on the lawn of Sale (27-5). At 15 against 14 for 60 minutes, Toulouse accelerated in the last quarter of an hour but did not shine.
From the start, the Sharks put a lot of energy into the fight after the slap received by Ernest-Wallon in the first leg (45-19), scoring a try by his South African hooker Akker van der Merwe (5-0 , 12th) on a ball carried well led. But wanting to put too much commitment into it, Sale quickly found himself in numerical inferiority after the red card – quite severe – against his second line Jacobus Wiese for a clearing in the shoulder on the head of Dorian Aldegheri (19th) .
The Haut-Garonnais chained playing times, held the ball to create space but made too many blunders to bankrupt the big opposing defense. Finding no flaws in his play, the five-time winner of the event relied on the right foot of international back Melvyn Jaminet, who allowed his team to take the lead thanks to five penalty goals ( 25th, 44th, 51st, 55th, 66th, 15-5).
Omnipresent, Meafou delivered Toulouse
It was finally at the end of the game, when the courageous English began to stick out their tongues, that the ubiquitous second-line Emmanuel Meafou, elected man of the match, found a first fault to flatten after a hard job of Antoine Dupont then Dimitri Delibes. The Toulouse then took off on the scoreboard (22-5, 70th), before taking shelter definitively by Guillaume Cramont two minutes later (27-5).
Thanks to this victory, Toulouse has 13 points and is at the top of Pool B, tied with Leicester (pending the La Rochelle match which can take the lead alone) before receiving Munster in Walloon on January 22 (4:15 p.m.) , for the last pool match.
Ugo Mola’s players see the door to the round of 16 open in front of them. It remains to be seen whether they eliminate or move on for this first round of knockout matches.