Saturday evening saw the visit Stadt Toulousain to the Kingspan Stadium to face Ulster in the 3^rd round of Group Stage games in the European Champions Cup. There was optimism in the sell out crowd after Ulster’s defeat of Racing 92 in the previous Group Stage game.

Early Ulster pressure was beaten back by a strong Toulouse defence. In Toulouse’s first attack an accurate cross field kick by Thomas Ramos was collected by Mattis Lebel, who gathered and dived over for the 1^st try. Ramos’s conversion from out wide gave Toulouse a 7-0 lead.

Ulster replied quickly with a John Cooney penalty goal to reduce the deficit to 3-7. A Ramos penalty goal on 21 minutes moved Toulouse out to 10-3.

Peato Mauvaka was on hand at the base of a line out maul to push Toulouse out to 15-3 after 34 minutes.

Ulster looked to see out the half, but Antoine Dupont was on hand, backing up a break to cross beside the posts on 36 minutes. Ramos’ conversion had Toulouse 22-3 to the good.

On the blow of halftime Tom Stewart drove over, from a short penalty. Cooney’s conversion saw Ulster go into the sheds 10-22 down.

After some Ulster pressure Toulouse broke out to cut through the Ulster defence, with Dupont, again, running support to scamper in from 35 metres to dot down beside the posts. Ramos’ conversion put Toulouse out to 29-10.

Mauvaka linked with Dupont on the blindside to score in the corner after 52 minutes, followed by Alexandre Roumat on 60 minutes, moving Toulouse out to 41-10.

Ulster dug in and responded. Will Addison squeezed in at the left corner, for Neil Doak to convert, followed by Nick Timoney‘s try and Doak’s conversion on 68 minutes, had Ulster at 24-41, with faint hopes of a bonus point try.

However, Toulouse had the last say, when Emmanuel Meafou drove through the Ulster defence to score under the posts. Blair Kinghorn‘s conversion gave Toulouse a 48-24 victory and leave Ulster with a must win game against Harlequins in London, next Saturday.

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