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Toulouse back on track after hammering Bordeaux / Photo: © AFP
Toulouse back on track after hammering Bordeaux
Champions Toulouse bounced back from their shock defeat to La Rochelle last week with a stunning eight-try 48-12 thrashing of an under-strength Bordeaux-Begles on Sunday.
A week after Bordeaux had stormed to the top of the table with a 10-try blitzing of Racing 92, they were on the receiving end in the Ernest-Wallon stadium.
And this was another chastening night for the Champions Cup holders against the dominant domestic force, who beat them 56-13 in the same fixture last season, and dished out a 59-3 humiliation in the 2024 Top 14 final.
The victory moved Toulouse above Bordeaux into fourth behind the only three teams to win both their opening matches, Pau, Lyon and La Rochelle.
Kalvin Gourgues started the try-fest as he raced onto Ange Capuozzo's grubber, before the Italy wing returned the favour for the French centre.
Hooker Julien Marchand barged over next from the back of a rolling maul before Argentina centre Santiago Chocobares pounced on an overthrown line-out by the front-rower to go over under the posts.
Antoine Dupont then set up wing Teddy Thomas for the fifth and Marchand went over again for the sixth on the stroke of half-time.
Thomas Ramos, widely considered the best kicker in the world, missed the first three conversions, after which Romain Ntamack took over and nailed the next three.
But after prop Cyril Baille dotted down in the corner, Ntamack missed his kick.
Bordeaux coach Yannick Bru responded by throwing on some first team regulars, including scrum-half Maxime Lucu, Tonga prop Toma'akino Taufa and English back-rower Tom Willis, whose older brother Jack started for Toulouse.
It worked as wing Pablo Uberti and then Taufa went over to reduce the deficit.
Flying France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey then scythed through a back-peddling defence for what seemed to be his customary score, only for Romain Buros to be harshly penalised for a block on Gourgues.
Thomas then went over in the corner for a second try but that too was chalked off for a forward pass by Scotland full-back Blair Kinghorn.
Yet Toulouse had the last word from a rolling maul as replacement prop Georges-Henri Colombe notched up the eighth try.
S. Alves--JDB
