Cup canter for Toulouse

Toulouse made it three wins from three in this year's Heineken Cup with a landslide 26-7 victory over an outclassed Dragons side at Stade Ernest Wallon.

The French side ran-in four tries in a dominant performance and the Dragons were even flattered by the winning margin with Frederic Michalak missing a host of kicks.

Yannick Jauzion crossed for the only score of the first half but Toulouse camped out in opposition territory after the interval and were rewarded with tries from Clement Poitrenaud, Maxime Medard and Florian Fritz.

The visitors rarely had a sniff of the opposing try line after a sprightly opening quarter - James Arlidge missing their only chance to get points on the board in the 25th minute.

Delightful handling

The Dragons could not cope with the flair of the Toulouse backs, who ran the ball from one side of the pitch to the other with their great handling a delight to watch.

However, the Welsh side gained some consolation when Steve Jones closed out a good move with the final play of the match - Shaun Connor adding the extras.

The hosts were on the board as early as the 12th minute, Michalak chipping the ball over the defence for Jauzion to steal in unchallenged between the posts.

The Toulouse pack took control of proceedings but Michalak was unable to profit from their dominance, missing three penalties that were well within his compass.

Dragons had Richard Fussell sin-binned for a high tackle in the final minute of the half and Medard, the man taken out in the hit, almost created an opening from the re-start with Gareth Wyatt doing well to beat Cedric Heymans to the chase.

The Welsh went in just 7-0 down despite spending much of the first 40 minutes on the back foot, but Toulouse took advantage of the extra man after the re-start to double their lead.

French rampant

Following a lengthy break while Marc Stcherbina received treatment on a neck injury, the Reds scored from the first play, Michalak again providing the grubber-kick for full-back Poitrenaud to touch down.

Medard got on the scoresheet eight minutes later when finishing off a flowing move in the right hand corner - Michalak missing the conversion - but by this time the French were rampant.

They scored again in the 65th minute with Michalak involved again in a delightful move that saw replacement Fritz barge through under the posts, after a delightful pass inside from the fly-half.

Toulouse continued to press for further points but the Welsh gained some momentum and with the home defence stretched for the first time Jones slipped through to give the visitors something to smile about.