Match (and trip) Report: Toulouse 19 Leeds Tykes 3

By Andycap on 17/12/2003
December 18 2003

A fine mizzle greeted us at the stadium, which from the inside was superb but on the outside was only half finished but what the hell, we were in France at the home of the European Champions to watch the "H Cup". (Apparently French Law doesn’t allow the advertising of alcohol on TV).

Having travelled to Toulouse by independent means, we found ourselves temporarily attached to the official Touring party for a lift from the pub to the ground.

Around 300 Tykes fans had travelled and we were making ourselves known with renditions of "Jingle Bells" and "Hey Baby – Leeds Tykes" echoing around the ground.

The game started with "le Crunch", Ntamack was fed the ball and promptly ran into Matt Salter. As the game progressed around him, Ntamack lay prostrate on the ground. One up for Leeds.

The game was not upto much, too many silly errors under little or no pressure enabled Toulouse to move out of their own half. Leeds infringed and Missalot didn’t. (Miss a lot, that is!).

The Welsh ref obviously thought he was conducting a Welsh Male Voice Choir, as quite what his arm signals meant neither we nor the players knew.

Anyway, as the Toulouse crowd quietened down a verse of "Swing Low" livened them up and the drums and arm gestures were awesome to say the least.

In the 2nd half the ref binned Scabs for a ruck infringement but the lads dug deep and defended resolutely. The ref then decided just as we got back to full strength to bin Powell and his opponent to sort out the scrums. This with approx 15 mins to go.

He then proceeded to find 10 minutes of extra time, during which we finally succumbed. Toulouse from a spilled ball made ground towards the Leeds Try line,
Playing to a penalty advantage Toulouse scored between the posts which was converted by Missalot. A late surge by Leeds almost brought a try but again a penalty was awarded against Leeds for not releasing and Toulouse kicked the ball dead to end the game.

Final Score Toulouse 19 Leeds Tykes 3

Conclusion: A loss but not a disgrace, to hold the reigning Champions for 80+ minutes before conceding was excellent. However, as John Callard remarked,"To have refs of such a poor standard refereeing the Premier Cup competition needs looking at!"

Toulouse the 4th largest City in France with the most number of Shops, restaurants and Hairdressers.