Toulouse thumping ‘a tough one to take’ for Harlequins
Alex Dombrandt admitted Harlequins paid the price for being below their best in their 47-19 Investec Champions Cup defeat by Toulouse.
Quins were unable to register consecutive victories over Top 14 opposition after a combination of their shortcomings and Toulouse’s attacking brilliance resulted in a seven-try rout at The Stoop.
Chasing the game from an early stage, the London club became increasingly loose and turned over the ball far too often before falling apart in the final quarter.
“It’s a tough one to take. We knew how big the challenge was against Toulouse,” England number eight Dombrandt said.
“Sometimes you’ve got tip your hat and they were excellent. They have stars across their team. They took their opportunities well.
“In some areas we put our best foot forward and in others we didn’t. Against Toulouse when you don’t quite get it right they punish you.
“When a game gets loose they are one of the best teams in the world at taking advantage of that. But I can’t fault the boys for trying to nullify their threats.
“We had full belief in ourselves that we can beat any team, but that wasn’t to be. We’ll come out of this with some big learnings and will get better from it.”
Quins lost second row Dino Lamb – their primary line-out forward – to a first-half head injury after he was knocked out in a clash of heads when tackled by Pita Ahki.
Lamb received lengthy medical attention on the field before being carried off on a stretcher and had regained consciousness by the interval.
“We got off to a good start and the injury took the sting out of the game a bit,” Dombrandt said.
“We’re not using it as an excuse because it was the same for both teams to get back into the swing of things.”
Five-time champions Toulouse have amassed 14 tries in the opening rounds of the Champions Cup and they outclassed Quins despite making a number of mistakes.
Antoine Dupont was more conspicuous as the match progressed and the France captain admits Europe is an important goal in a season that will end with him taking part in the Olympics as part of the national sevens side.
“The Champions Cup has always been a special competition for us. We saw in the last two weeks that we are very motivated for this competition,” Dupont said.
“We had a big competition with the World Cup and it will be the same with the Olympics. I also have the Top 14 and the Champions Cup.
“I have a very busy year. But I love that and I’m excited for these competitions and I will have to work a lot to be competitive in all of them.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Big empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
34 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to comments