The China Mail - Graou shines as Toulouse sink Montpellier to extend Top 14 lead

A 15th victory in 20 matches this season kept the French giants on track to qualify directly for the Top 14 semi-finals later this year.

Even with France superstar Antoine Dupont starting on the bench following his Six Nations exploits, Toulouse proved a formidable force in a top-of-the-table clash which lived up to its prime billing with 10 tries.

In an entertaining start, champions Toulouse and Montpellier went blow-for-blow.

Toulouse flanker Leo Banos threw an outrageous pass behind his back to France's Six Nations hero Thomas Ramos to notch the opening try.

Montpellier responded immediately when fly-half Thomas Vincent ran onto his half-back partner Leo Coly's grubber down the line to dot down.

But right from the restart, Graou darted from the base of a ruck and produced a brilliant sidestep to beat full-back Jon Echegaray and saunter over.

And all that inside the opening quarter of an hour.

Just after the half hour mark, Toulouse stretched their lead to 24-8 as an initial break from Ramos ended with Graou again wrong-footing Echegaray to go in under the posts.

Fantastic interplay by the Toulouse three-quarters, started by wing Matthis Lebel, ended with centre Paul Costes adding the next score.

Montpellier managed to ensure they stayed just about in touch at the break as prop Baptiste Erdocio burrowed over to reduce the arrears to 31-15.

The second half started much like the first, with Scotland wing Blair Kinghorn holding off three tacklers to touch down in the corner inside two minutes of the restart.

Dupont was amongst a raft of replacements to enter the fray 10 minutes into the second half as Ramos went off after contributing 16 points.

But Montpellier scored next through flanker Marco Tauleigne.

He would later cop a yellow card, as would Toulouse's English back-rower Jack Willis, before hooker Lyam Akrab was driven over after a catch and drive as Montpellier closed the gap to just nine points.

Almost immediately, though, Toulouse drove over their own replacement hooker Thomas Lacombre to once again extend their lead.

bc!d,c

M.Zhou--ThChM