Believe it or not, this is the first time we’ve played Toulouse in this stadium in 27 years, which is bizarre when you consider how often we’ve played le Rouge et Noir in the last three seasons. We did play Toulouse in the Stadium de Toulouse in the Heineken Cup semi-final of 2002/03 but that is a different stadium to the Stade Ernest Wallon. So, to be clear, Stade Toulousain doesn’t always play in Stade de Toulouse but make no mistake, we are playing in le stade Toulousain this weekend.
What can you say about Toulouse that hasn’t already been said a hundred times over? They are an outstanding team with outstanding players. You could make the argument that they are the preeminent side of the modern era and that just one European Cup in the last four years – they’ve lost three semi-finals since they missed out on Champions Cup qualification in 2017/18 – is not a fair reflection of their quality.
Last season, Munster’s entire development cycle was defined by a three-hour epic against Toulouse, which was something of a pyrrhic draw for both sides if such a thing exists. Our season never recovered and Toulouse were so shattered by the exertion of it that they looked a shadow of themselves against Leinster a week later and were duly bounced out of the competition.
Context is everything, however, and that run came after an absolute murderer’s row of games against the very best teams in the Top 14 while the core of the Toulouse squad came off an intense French Grand Slam in the Six Nations. Toulouse were shattered when we played them and I think it’s fair enough to say that that schedule played a part in how close we were able to run them that day.
But fast forward to this past December and we’re also pushing them close. Sure, we ultimately lost that game, as we have done in all the recent games against them but there wasn’t a cavernous gap between a fresh Toulouse and an injury-depleted Munster side in Year One of a rebuild.
Is that something to be encouraged by ahead of the return fixture? Yeah, it is. At the same time, the conditions on the day add a few question marks. I think it’s fair enough to say that the freezing fog and surface slowed down our game and that was an advantage to a super-heavyweight Toulouse pack who picked their spots well with two or three huge moments in the maul that ultimately won them the game.
We’re expecting similar enough conditions this weekend so… what’s changed? I think the principles that saw Toulouse win back in December are still very much in play so what matters is our reaction to what we know didn’t work back in Thomond Park.
How we handle that will determine how this game progresses.
Toulouse: 15. Melvyn Jaminet; 14. Juan Cruz Mallía, 13. Pierre-Louis Barassi, 12. Pita Ahki, 11. Dimitri Delibes; 10. Romain Ntamack, 9. Antoine Dupont; 1. Cyril Baille, 2. Julien Marchand, 3. Dorian Aldegheri; 4. Richie Arnold, 5. Emmanuel Meafou; 6. Anthony Jelonch, 7. Jack Willis, 8. Alexandre Roumat.
Replacements: 16. Guillaume Cramont, 17. Rodrigue Neti, 18. David Ainu’u, 19. Thibaud Flament, 20. Josh Brennan, 21. Francois Cros, 22. Ange Capuozzo, 23. Arthur Retiere.
The key to beating Toulouse is rooted in denying them access to your 22 in three key areas – denying them penalties at the scrum, preventing them from getting momentum in the maul and off the maul and denying them first-phase transition opportunities.
If you can do that, you’ll get opportunities to hurt Toulouse and if you can do that, you beat them.
Toulouse’s base game is very close to the heavy kick pressure that France have used to great effect under Fabien Galthié and Sean Edwards in the last few years. They kick often – more than every opponent they’ve played in this season’s European Cup – and they kick long, with an average of 32.45 metres per kick across their three games to date.
Against Munster, they outkicked us by 14 kicks and while they reduced that volume against Sale, I would expect their kick volume to increase again in this one. That puts a massive premium on our ability to transition as well as we have in the last few weeks while also resisting the urge to roll across a defence with breakdown threats like Willis, Baille, Meafou, Marchand and Meafou in it.
Ultimately, I think Toulouse think that they have a fairly good handle on our phase play, our transition game and our post-transition phase play so our job is to make them regret that thought a little too late to do anything about it.
Our transition attack has been really good over the last few weeks but this is another level when it comes to testing it out. Hitting the anchors – which I wrote about here – will be possible if we have anything close to decent conditions and good runbacks off Toulouse’s long kicking game.
But to bring that into the game we have to keep Toulouse’s maul out of the game as much as possible. That will mean a balance between competing in the air with O’Mahony/Beirne on some of Toulouse’s seven-man set ups with Jelonch, Roumat and Arnold as the target and staying planted on the floor to prevent Toulouse from getting moment.
That means smart decision-making from Kilcoyne and Scannell as our usual flank defenders with Hodnett ideally staying over as our chop tackler and stopper.
Sale showed us that with a strong, slightly early and elevated maul entry man for man on the lift – three men entering on the lift pod – with an angled slide up the flank on the same side where Toulouse lean after the drop, you can stop them from getting momentum. When you stop them from getting momentum, they’re heavy enough that it’s difficult for them to get going again.
Look at this example at full speed – high entry, strong initial shove, surge on the side they lean, strike when they go the other way.
We’ll have to double up on that by not giving them penalty access at the scrum which Toulouse are very good at generating. The love a tighthead surge across the scrum so Kilcoyne and Scannell will have to be red hot on Dorian Aldegheri on every engagement – nothing fancy, just no ground given.
Do that, and we’ll have a chance to get something out of this game.
