Following Toulouse’s 20-14 defeat to Saracens in round three of the Investec Champions Cup, here is how we scored Ugo Mola’s men.
Toulouse player ratings v Saracens
15 Thomas Ramos: Had a few lovely flashes early into the day, but drifted out of the game as the conditions worsened. 5
14 Dimitri Delibes: Always looked to make something happen, but couldn’t quite get the breakaway his efforts warranted. 6
13 Paul Costes: Just a quiet day, in all honesty, as the Saracens midfield marshalled him well. 5
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12 Santiago Chocobares: Made himself busy around the park, but again just couldn’t quite bring his usual punch to proceedings. Made his tackles when needed, though. 5
11 Matthis Lebel: Consistently made positive things happen for his side. Be it with his dancing feet or ability to find space around the park just seemed to get his team behind the defence, and grabbed a try for his troubles. 7
10 Blair Kinghorn: The fly-half experiment was mentioned a lot in the build-up, and to be fair, it went pretty well all told. This game will by no means be remembered for champagne rugby, but Kinghorn had a few nice flashes both with ball-in-hand and from the boot too. There were some errors in there, too, but they were littered across this Toulouse display. 6
9 Antoine Dupont (c): Not as dazzling as we’ve come to expect, but when he was good, Toulouse looked on point. The conditions certainly weren’t suited to his skillset, mind, but he still seemed to have full control of the Toulouse attack, toying with the tempo really nicely. 6
Back-row
8 Alexandre Roumat: Quietly went about his business, but like many of his teammates, it was not his best performance in a Toulouse shirt. 5
7 Anthony Jelonch: While his stats might not reflect it, he brought heaps of physicality to proceedings and was a consistent nuisance for Saracens around the ruck. His departure also saw a notable drop in that department, too, which further emphasises his efforts. 6
6 Jack Willis: A reminder of just why England fans are desperate to see him back in the white jersey. He was a thorn in the side of Saracens all evening, making tackles and winning turnovers for fun and trucking hard ball-in-hand too. Also seems to thrive in the French left-right back-row split rather than the traditional open-blind split, allowing him to go to town across his channel as a result. His battle against brother Tom was a fascinating sub-plot too, with the pair gunning for one another. 8
Tight five
5 Emmanuel Meafou: Just solid. Trucked hard ball-in-hand, as you would expect from the classy French international, and threw his sizeable frame around in defence too. 6
4 Thibaud Flament: Another workhorse effort from the French international. Worked his socks off in defence, posting a tally of 12 tackles for his efforts. 6
3 Dorian Aldegheri: Had the upper hand, just about, in his scrum battle, and got stuck into the breakdown battle to good effect too. A solid performance without setting the pitch alight. 6
2 Julien Marchand: Typically impactful across all aspects of his game, particularly in defence, as he continues to show his quality. A performance like this will certainly please Fabien Galthie, too, on the eve of the Six Nations squad. 7
1 David Ainu’u: Helped his side get the upper hand in the scrum, and got himself about in the loose too as he looked to get involved on both sides of the ball. 6
Replacements: The game was there for the taking when Matthis Lebel crossed the whitewash, but the bench couldn’t take that opportunity as Saracens once again gained the upper hand. The scrum started turning, quite literally at times, towards the hosts, while the battle up-front also started to shift that way as the bench couldn’t quite handle the impact of those opposite them. Joshua Brennan was the highlight pick of the replacements, however, as he added some oomph to the defence, but overall, the bench couldn’t stem the flow. 5
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