South Africa Rugby World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe said that he was stunned by his own ability after scoring twice as Toulouse began their European Rugby Champions Cup campaign with a 29-22 victory at Ulster on Friday.
Kolbe crossed in superb fashion either side of the break as he took his tally to 10 tries in as many games since the sport’s restart in September.
For Ulster, it was a first loss at their Kingspan Stadium since October 2018.
Photo: AFP
“There are not a lot of teams that come here and get a win. I think we can take a lot of confidence from this and keep on building,” Kolbe told BT Sport. “To be honest, I surprise myself and I just think it’s my body that just takes over.”
“It’s not about me, it’s about the team, and the forwards who lay the foundation for us backline players to give us opportunities to finish them off,” he added
Ulster coach Dan McFarland made five changes from their PRO14 hammering of Edinburgh two weeks ago as hooker Rob Herring and three-quarter Jacob Stockdale returned from Ireland duty.
Australia lock Rory Arnold and New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup winner Charlie Faumuina returned to Toulouse coach Ugo Mola’s starting lineup after their league victory at Bayonne on Saturday last week.
Ulster led 12-0 after 16 minutes as Herring and flyhalf Ian Madigan crossed in greasy conditions.
Mola’s side responded immediately as Kolbe chipped and chased to finish from 50m in a sublime individual effort as he beat three defenders.
The joint-four time record winners led 14-12 at the break as Antoine Dupont broke from halfway and sold opposition fullback Michael Lowry a dummy to slide over.
The home team dominated after the interval as scrumhalf John Cooney kicked a penalty and Herring added a second either side of 2.13m Arnold’s first try of the season for a 22-21 lead with 15 minutes to play.
Kolbe’s second moment of brilliance came as the former Stormers winger received the ball on the left touchline.
He sidestepped Stockdale within centimeters of the whitewash and then found his way through for a try, despite falling to all fours.
Thomas Ramos made up for the missed conversion with a 50m penalty goal to seal the win for his team and a repeat result of last season’s quarter-final.
Earlier, Argentina winger Santiago Cordero dived over the try line with seven minutes remaining in Bordeaux-Begles’ 16-12 victory at Northampton Saints.
Saints coach Chris Boyd said that after the loss he would focus on the league and is likely to pick a vastly different side for the trip to Leinster on Saturday next week.
“We’ll worry about the Premiership for now,” he told BT Sport. “We’ll probably change tack and give some youngsters a run and give some boys a rest.”
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