Following a 77-7 victory for Toulouse over Sale Sharks, here are our five takeaways from the Investec Champions Cup encounter at the Stade Ernest-Wallon on Saturday.
The top line
Toulouse made sure of their place in the knockout stages of the Champions Cup and even gave themselves a shot at a home tie in the round-of-16 by demolishing an understrength Sale team.
The English outfit had already qualified for the next round and duly sent out a severely weakened side, but they may regret throwing in the towel before the match had even started. Although this humiliation didn’t affect their position in the last-16, they will now have to go away from home, while you wonder what the mental scars from this defeat will do to the squad.
It was one-way traffic throughout as Les Rouge et Noir wrapped up the bonus-point just shy of the interval before they went over seven more times in the second period as they benefited from some porous Sale defence.
There was, of course, plenty of magic from the spellbinding hosts, who went 28-0 in front at the break through Emmanuel Meafou, Julien Marchand, Antoine Dupont and Kalvin Gourgues tries. Tom Curtis did respond for the visitors in the second period but that was their only score as Dupont and Matthis Lebel both scored braces, with Dimitri Delibes, Thomas Ramos, Paul Graou and Joshua Brennan the other players to cross the whitewash.
Lambs to the slaughter
Sale supporters were not at all happy with the team selection given that their Gallagher PREM hopes appear slim after a dreadful start to the season. Even accounting for the absentee list, which is lengthy, you can understand their frustrations with them now having to go away from home in the knockout stages.
It was not a case of who would win but how many the hosts would win by and, unsurprisingly, the French giants enjoyed feasting on the weakened Sharks. A full-strength squad would have found it almost impossible to emerge triumphant at the six-time champions, but this side were only ever going to get an absolute hammering.
The decision from Alex Sanderson to field such an understrength team was slightly bizarre when they have just one more match – against Northampton Saints next weekend – before a two-month break in the major competitions.
It turned into an embarrassment for the visitors, and you wonder what the impact such a result will have on the squad as they look towards the end-of-season run-in. But perhaps more pertinently, they had an opportunity to get themselves a home game in the last-16 – a losing bonus-point might have been enough – yet they effectively raised the white flag before the match had even begun.
The Toulouse linchpins
They are littered with stars throughout and form the spine of an outstanding France team, but even the best sides have two or three individuals that just elevate their level when they play. For Toulouse, one is obviously Dupont and the other is Jack Willis. Their influence is such that you wonder whether they would ever be in contention for silverware without them.
That duo were once again at the heart of this effort with the genius scrum-half an absolute joy to watch as he manipulated the opposition defence with regularity. In fairness, Sale made it very easy for him, but that rather underplays the sheer brilliance of this generation’s most talented player.
However, he couldn’t produce such performances without a pack that got him plenty of possession and Willis is a big part of that. His breakdown work is arguably the best in Europe and Sale failed to shift him off the ball when he got set. It was a masterclass from the flanker and it’s such a shame we are not able to see it at international level.
The only positives for Sale
It was a humbling experience for the visitors as their young players learned a lot about what it takes at the top level, but some individuals did emerge with credit. Centre Rekeiti Ma’asi-White – one of their few first-choice players in the line-up – was one of those.
Ma’asi-White, who is not far off England contention, did not do his Six Nations chances any harm with a fine display. Despite the visitors being utterly abject in most facets, the midfield powerhouse was excellent, carrying hard, winning turnovers and getting off-loads away.
There is now plenty of competition at centre for England – to the extent that it might just force him out of the reckoning when Steve Borthwick names his squad – but the 22-year-old stood up tall when most of his team-mates faltered.
There were a couple who showed promise, however. Tom Burrow, who was the England U20 captain last year, was one of them. He was the Sharks’ main target at the lineout, while he also got up well on Toulouse’s ball, before their set-piece rather failed in the final half-hour.
Burrow’s forward colleague Jos Gilmore was another to suggest that he has something about him. A big unit at blindside, Gilmore showed his power by bumping off the gargantuan Meafou, while he made a few other decent impacts at close quarters.
Looking towards the knockouts
Toulouse did go into this clash at risk of missing out on the knockouts, which would have been one of the biggest shocks in the competition’s history, but no one really thought that would happen, especially when Sale named their team.
However, two losses – to Glasgow Warriors and Saracens – does mean that if they are to add a seventh star, then they will have to do it the hard way. They currently have a home game in the round-of-16 after leaping from fifth to second, but Sarries could change that if they defeat Glasgow on Sunday. Either way, 12 points is not enough to make Toulouse one of the highest seeds and they will face a tough route through.
As for Sale, they will have to make do with an away tie, arguably undoing all the good work in the victories over Clermont Auvergne and the Sharks. The club have constantly stated that they are an ambitious outfit, but they effectively settled for mediocrity by what they did on Saturday, with silverware in either the PREM or Champions Cup looking highly unlikely now.