The Hollywoodbets Sharks lost 08-20 to Stade Toulousain in a scrappy Investec Champions Cup Round 4 match despite a great effort in the final fifteen minutes by the hosts. Stade Toulousain marches unbeaten into the playoff.
Toulouse were patient in their build-up following a brilliant 50/22 kick by Romain Ntamack. Antoine Dupont's soft pass from the back of a ruck to Emmanuel Meafou sent the towering lock over for the first points of the match. Thomas Ramos converted for a 07-00 lead to Toulouse.
After fourteen minutes of play, Jordan Hendrikse converted an easy penalty, to cut Toulouse's lead to four points.
The second quarter became a bit boring with both teams content to not concede points going into the second half. Toulouse set up camp in their hosts' half for most of the twenty minutes despite conceding six penalties to the two conceded by the Sharks.
With five minutes to play Thomas Ramos extended Toulouse's lead to 10-03 with a converted penalty.
With time up on the clock the Sharks kicked for possession following a penalty, which eventually resulted in Toulouse's Thomas Ramos converting his second penalty minutes later to extend their lead to 13-03, which was also the halftime score.
Toulouse started like a house on fire and following three minutes of brilliant interplay eventually led to a brilliant pass by Thomas Ramos to put Blair Kinghorn away to score in the corner Ramos converted to extend Toulouse's lead to 20-03.
The match degraded to a scrappy affair for the next twenty minutes.
The Sharks started to get their hands on quality attacking ball and following great interplay Jurenzo Julius beat several Toulouse defenders to go over for the Sharks' first try in the corner. With ten minutes to play Toulouse led 20-08, which was also the final score.
Scorers:
Hollywoodbets Sharks: Try: Jurenzo Julius. Penalty: Jordan Hendrikse.
Stade Toulousain: Tries: Emmanuel Meafou, Blair Kinghorn. Conversion: Thomas Ramos (2). Penalties: Thomas Ramos (2).
Teams
Hollywoodbets Sharks: 15 Hakeem Kunene, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Ethan Hooker, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Jordan Hendrikse, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Siya Kolisi (c), 7 Emmanuel Tshituka, 6 Phepsi Buthelezi, 5 Jason Jenkins, 4 Corne Rahl, 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche. Replacements: 16 Dylan Richardson, 17 Ruan Dreyer, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Jeandre Labuschagne, 20 Vincent Tshituka, 21 Nick Hatton, 22 Bradley Davids, 23 Jurenzo Julius.
Stade Toulousain: 15 Thomas Ramos, 14 Blair Kinghorn, 13 Pierre-Louis Barassi, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Matthis Lebel, 10 Romain Ntamack, 9 Antoine Dupont (c), 8 Jack Willis, 7 Anthony Jelonch, 6 François Cros, 5 Emmanuel Meafou , 4 Thibaud Flament, 3 Dorian Aldegheri, 2 Peato Mauvaka, 1 Rodrigue Neti. Replacements: 16 Julien Marchand, 17 Cyril Baille, 18 Joel Merkler, 19 Joshua Brennan, 20 Leo Banos, 21 Paul Graou, 22 Juan Cruz Mallia, 23 Ange Capuozzo.