Toulouse 24 - 31 Harlequins: Harlequins hold out for a shock victory in Toulouse

HARLEQUINS claimed a shock victory over the four-time champions yesterday to throw Pool 6 of the Heineken Cup wide open, and became the first team to win a European tie at Toulouse in almost three years
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Dec 2011, 05:31 BST

Luke McAlister opened the scoring for Toulouse with a penalty inside three minutes, though Nick Evans quickly cancelled that lead. Then Quins claimed the opening try in the 11th minute when Mike Brown won the foot-race to Evans’ smart kick to the corner.

On 24 minutes, a swift interchange of passes ended with hooker Joe Gray diving over. Evans converted for a surprise 15-3 lead. Toulouse pressure then paid off when Jean Bouilhou broke through for Yoann Maestri to score. Jean-Marc Doussain’s conversion cut Harlequins’ lead to five points at half-time before two penalties early in the second half put the French team ahead.

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Toulouse moved up the gears, and Bouilhou stretched the lead to 19-15 on 61 minutes. Almost immedaitely, Nick Easter off-loaded to Brown who scampered through for his second try. Evans converted and added a penalty as the game swung back in Harlequins favour 25-19, until Easter was shown a yellow card for infringing at a ruck.

Doussain squeezed over in the corner but the scrum-half missed the conversion and Evans hit back with a brace of penalties late on as Quins held out.