The Vodacom Bulls faced an expected tough task against the unbeaten French giants, Stade Toulousain and failed to proceed to the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals as they lost 33-09 in Toulouse on Sunday afternoon.
Toulouse dominated the first 40 minutes of play on the back of the ill-discipline of the Vodacom Bulls who conceded 9 tries which resulted in the 12 points Toulouse scored via converted penalties. However, the Vodacom Bull should be proud of their defensive effort which kept their host tryless despite sustained pressure on their tryline for most of the first half.
Two quick tries in the second half secured the win for Toulouse with 33-09. The rest of the second half was an even affair with Toulouse just the better side to ensure the great win.
An early mistake from Toulouse off the kick-off gave Chris Smith an easy opportunity to open the scoring for the visitors with a converted penalty.
Toulouse started to dominate play which resulted in Thomas Ramos converting a penalty for the hosts to level the scores after 8 minutes of play.
The Vodacom Bulls struggled under the sustained pressure applied by Toulouse and conceded several penalties resulting in Thomas Ramos converting two more penalties to lead to 09-03.
Harold Vorster (Vodacom Bulls) was shown a yellow card with 10 minutes to go. The Vodacom Bulls' eighth penalty conceded, was converted by Thomas Ramis to extend Toulouse's lead to 12-03.
Chris Smith pulled three points back from Toulouse's lead when he converted his second penalty to take his personal contribution to 6 points.
The Vodacom Bulls started the second half patiently building pressure which resulted in a converted penalty by Chris Smith after 4 minutes of play in the second half.
Toulouse however started to attack the tryline with purpose and after several attempts stopped by the Vodacom Bulls, Emmanuel Meafou scored Toulouse's first try from the back of a 5m lineout-maul to extend Toulouse's lead to 19-09.
Matthis Lebel ran down the touchline four minutes later to score Toulouse's second try to lead 26-09. The sustained pressure from Toulouse resulted in a bouncing ball inside the Vodacom Bulls in-goal area being pounced on by Thibaud Flamen to score Toulouse's third try to extend their lead to 33-09 which was also the final score of the match.
Scorers:
Toulouse: Try: Emmanuel Meafou, Matthis Lebel, Thibaud Flamen. Conversions: Thomas Ramos (3). Penalties: Thomas Ramos (4).
Vodacom Bulls: Penalties: Chris Smith
Teams:
Toulouse: 15. Thomas Ramos, 14. Juan Cruz Mallía, 13. Santiago Chocobares, 12. Pita Ahki, 11. Matthis Lebel, 10. Romain Ntamack, 9. Antoine Dupont (c), 8. Alexandre Roumat, 7. Francois Cros, 6. Jack Willis, 5. Emmanuel Meafou, 4. Richie Arnold, 3. Dorian Aldegheri, 2. Julien Marchand, 1. Cyril Baille. Replacements: 16. Peato Mauvaka, 17. Rodrigue Neti, 18. David Ainu’u, 19. Thibaud Flament, 20. Alban Placines, 21. Joshua Brennan, 22. Paul Graou, 23. Dimitri Delibes.
Vodacom Bulls: 15. Kurt-Lee Arendse, 14. Canan Moodie, 13. Cornal Hendricks, 12. Harold Vorster, 11. David Kriel, 10. Chris Smith, 9. Zak Burger, 8. Elrigh Louw, 7. Cyle Brink, 6. Marco van Staden, 5. Ruan Nortjé (c), 4. Ruan Vermaak, 3. Mornay Smith, 2. Johan Grobbelaar, 1. Gerhard Steenekamp. Replacements: 16. Bismarck du Plessis, 17. Dylan Smith, 18. Francois Klopper, 19. Janko Swanepoel, 20. WJ Steenkamp, 21. Embrose Papier, 22. Morné Steyn, 23. Stedman Gans.