French Top 114 round five: Toulouse dominates La Rochelle
Toulouse was in total control in a win at home over La Rochelle over the weekend.
Toulouse made no mistakes in an impressive performance over La Rochelle in round five. Toulouse was in complete control for the entire match, taking a dominant 26-point lead into half-time. After the break the home side refused to let up as they tallied seven tries in the match. Maintaining an overall team effort, Toulouse finished off with a 50-3 victory.
Recap
Toulouse got started early with a try from full-back Maxime Medard before the clock ticked over to the one minute mark, giving the home side an early 5-0 lead.
La Rochelle then notched their only point of the entire game, a penalty from full-back Benjamin Dambielle.
Toulouse was quick to answer back with a penalty from fly-half David Skrela in the 9th minute to extend the lead to 8-3.
The home side then began to pour on the tries, getting three before the end of half, from Remy Lamerat, Nicolas Vergallo and Sylvain Nicolas. The onslaught resulted in a 29-3 advantage at half-time.
After the break it was more of the same as Cencus Lacombe marched over the line in the 47th minute, followed by Nicolas Bezy in the 59th minute and William Servat in the 64th minute. The conversions were hit by Skrela and Bezy, and Toulouse had extended their lead to 50-3.
The home side then sat back and watched the clock wind down on an impressive 47 point margin of victory.
Toulouse seems to finally have found their offensive form, crossing the whitewash seven times with a different player each time.
La Rochelle’s defence was simply unable to keep up as they ran into a much better and more well prepared Toulouse side.
Analysis
Toulouse move into second place with the victory and will hope to have finally found their form. Inconsistency has plagued Toulouse all season and it will be interesting to see if they have finally solved the problem in next week’s match.
Meanwhile La Rochelle continues to struggle at the bottom of the table, doing just enough to stay out of the basement. Toulouse’s 50-point outburst moves them to second last in points-against and last in point differential with a minus-51 this season. With two wins on the year they have the ability to record victories, nevertheless they will need to perform at a higher level if they hope to avoid relegation.
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