Defending champions Toulouse continued their unbeaten start to this season’s European Cup with a 28-16 Pool 6 victory over Glasgow on Friday.
However, they missed out on a crucial bonus point after taking their foot off the accelerator in the second half where they added just a penalty to their 25-16 halftime advantage.
“We had a very good first half, but the second half was all about frustration,” said Toulouse’s former All Black scrum-half Byron Kelleher, whose side have three wins in three matches.
“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform to the maximum,” Keller said.
Glasgow scored two early -penalties through Ruaridh Jackson
However, Toulouse crossed for their first try in the ninth minute, a quick free-kick taken by Kelleher finding Yannick Jauzion, who held up the defense and offloaded to a straight-running midfield partner Florian Fritz to cross under the posts.
Outside-half David Skrela converted, with Jackson skewing two attempts on goal shortly afterward as Toulouse dominated possession — 91 percent in the first 25 minutes, with Glasgow having made 54 tackles to Toulouse’s eight.
Skrela notched up a penalty before the visiting team’s far superior handling skills were again on show, Kelleher’s break and offload to Maxime Medard setting up prime field position for Jauzion to muscle over for a try Skrela converted.
Federico Aramburu was on hand, however, as a deft grubber by Max Evans evaded the diminutive Vincent Clerc and fell kindly for the Argentinian winger to dot down, Jackson converting to cut the deficit to four points.
Skrela knocked over a 33rd minute penalty with the Scottish scrum struggling against the vastly-experienced Toulouse front-five.
After Kelleher pinched a ball from the back of a Scotland scrum, Fritz bounced off a weak Aramburu tackle to make more headway before cleverly kicking to the corner, Medard collecting on the bounce and popping the ball to Cedric Heymans for a beautiful try Skrela failed to convert.
Jackson kicked a penalty to make it 25-16 at halftime.
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