Toulouse gain revenge in drab affair

Toulouse gained a measure of revenge on Racing-Metro with a turgid and try-less 15-9 victory in the French Top 14 on Sunday.

New Zealand international Luke McAlister scored four penalties with England flyhalf Toby Flood adding a fifth for the hosts.

"It wasn't very spectacular but with those conditions we couldn't do any better," said Flood.

"Racing are a good team and the main priority was to win."

Benjamin Dambielle, standing in at flyhalf for injured South African Johan Goosen, scored all of Racing's points with two penalties and a drop-goal.

Racing remained fourth but missed out on the losing bonus point after opting to kick a penalty to touch late on in an attempt to win the game rather than going for the three points that would have secured the bonus.

"You can see this is a team with a huge amount of pride and desire but they still need more maturity because that kind of point can be important at the end of the season," said Racing coach Laurent Travers.

The victory crucially helped erase memories of the record four-time European champions' play-off defeat to the Parisians at their Ernest-Wallon home back in May, denying Toulouse a semifinal place for the first time in 20 years.

Toulouse had already lost three times to Racing in 2014 but this success will give them confidence going into the new year.

The result in a forwards' arm-wrestle played on a heavy pitch was decided by a yellow card shown to Racing flank Bernard Le Roux on the stroke of half-time.

That also allowed All Black McAlister to give the hosts the lead 12-9 going into the changing rooms and he added his final penalty before Le Roux had rejoined the fray.

Racing will have some regrets after coming far closer to scoring a try than their hosts.

But they had a score from Yoan Audrin on 57 minutes ruled out by the TMO after Alexandre Dumoulin was adjudged to have knocked on when it seemed that Toulouse's Yoann Huget had in fact stripped him of the ball.

Audrin was left frustrated again a couple of minutes later after he failed to gather the ball when over the try line as Dambielle's penalty came back off the woodwork.

The Parisians also had a late chance to snatch the victory but Toulouse flank Yannick Nyanga, Racing-bound next season, won a line-out against the throw five yards from the home line to clear the danger.

In other matches European champions and league leaders Toulon face a difficult trip to Stade Francais in the evening while 2013 champions Castres will attempt to climb off the bottom at home to Montpellier.

Top 14 results:

Toulouse 15 Racing-Metro 9

Castres 27 Montpellier 9

La Rochelle 19 Grenoble 15

Oyonnax 12 Bayonne 9

Bordeaux-Begles 46 Brive 10

Provisional Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):

Toulon 13 9 0 4 397 236 6 42

Clermont 14 9 0 5 344 235 5 41

Stade Francais 13 9 0 4 306 322 3 39

Racing-Metro 14 8 0 6 302 260 5 37

Bordeaux-Begles 14 7 0 7 397 307 7 35

Toulouse 14 7 0 7 305 277 5 33

Grenoble 14 7 0 7 356 416 5 33

Montpellier 14 7 0 7 278 271 3 31

Oyonnax 14 6 0 8 284 286 5 29

Bayonne 14 5 1 8 267 276 6 28

Brive 14 6 0 8 277 348 3 27

Lyon 14 6 0 8 256 345 2 26

La Rochelle 14 5 1 8 275 393 3 25

Castres 14 5 0 9 270 342 4 24

Source: AFP