Mathieu WARNIER, Media365, published on Sunday 18 December 2022 at 16:07.
Thanks in particular to seven tries and a one-sided second period, Toulouse took advantage of the Sale Sharks reception to sign their second success in two European Cup matchdays (45-19) but lost Thomas Ramos, who received a red card at the very end of the match.
After a complicated day on Saturday, Toulouse picked up the gauntlet for French clubs in the European Cup. After reporting a brief success from Munster, Ugo Mola’s players gave their supporters an attacking display when they received Sale Sharks. But the English team first dampened Toulouse’s enthusiasm with a try from the second minute. Taking advantage of an approximation by Thomas Ramos on receiving a kick, Bevan Rodd managed to get the ball out of his foot to go alone on the try, easily converted by Robert du Preez. The response from the Stade Toulousain was immediate. After provoking a Sharks forward into sending off, it was on a scrum that the Haut-Garonnais sent the match. At the end of a long sequence, Thibaud Flament forced the pass under the posts to bring both teams back on a level playing field. Playing against the wind in the first half, Toulousains put the game away on their feet and it was on a touch five meters out that they gained the upper hand. Shortly after the quarter of an hour, a carried ball put Sale’s defense in difficulty and Cyril Baille took the opportunity to flatten a try validated by the video.
Toulouse and Dupont had fun
Over the next 120 seconds, Antoine Dupont came out of his box to add to the bill. After a lengthy comeback from Dimitri Delibes then a combination with Pita Ahki and Lucas Tauzin, the international scrum-half was served down a set. The Sharks then lost Armand van der Merwe for ten minutes following a volley tackle on Thomas Ramos but Toulouse failed to exploit this superiority in numbers. As soon as he returned to the grass, Sale’s hooker concluded the first act with a consecutive try from a ball easily taken to the lead. But if Ugo Mola’s players were engaged in the first period, they put the Azzurri in for a warm-up in the second. In first play, Lucas Tauzin kicked for Thomas Ramos. However, during the flat out, the Toulouse full-back was tackled off the ball by Byron McGuigan. The double penalty with a yellow card for the Sharks winger and a penalty try for Toulouse, that of the offensive bonus, were immediate. With one down, Sale immediately suffers the match and it is on a comeback from 80 meters that Antoine Dupont adds to the score. Indeed, after a match at the feet of Thomas Ramos, the scrum-half was the first on the ball to flatten himself in extremis.
Ramos, the red spot
On the hour, Lucas Tauzin consolidated Rouge-et-Noir’s ascent with a corner try. As the last quarter of an hour began, the Sharks received a third yellow card, this time for Tom O’Flaherty, guilty of a voluntary forward. A numerical inferiority that lasted only five minutes, the time that Charlie Faumuina paid for his team’s accumulation of faults. Romain Ntamack, on the other hand, managed to get Ernest-Wallon’s crowd up five minutes from the siren, playing the Sharks defense after a pass from Lucas Tauzin. The end of the match was then tense and marred by several referee decisions. After a loss of the English ball at the gates of in-goal, Martin Page-Relo perked up then displaced Matthis Lebel for one last try… which was eventually disallowed. Indeed, after reviewing the video, the referees detected a header by Thomas Ramos, who was immediately sent off and could be suspended for several weeks. Then recovering the ball in a favorable position, the Sharks improve a ball carried with Jonny Hill who manages to flatten on the line. Incidents that did not change the fate of the match with Toulouse who clearly won and with the offensive bonus (45-19), which allowed the Stadium to reach La Rochelle at the top of group B.
