Toulouse have sealed their place in the quarter-final stage of the Heineken Cup by registering an 21-11 victory over Saracens at Stade Ernest-Wallon this afternoon.
© AFP
The visitors, who were level on points with their French counterparts in Pool 3 ahead of the contest, started marginally better and took an early 5-3 lead.
Chris Ashton went over for his fifth try in the tournament this season on seven minutes to negate Jean-Marc Doussain's early penalty, although Andy Farrell could not complete the conversion.
Toulouse, who have won the competition four times - the last of which came in 2010 - soon grew into the game, with the right boot of Doussain responsible for firing the hosts ahead.
The 22-year-old struck nine more points prior to half time to give Guy Noves's men a 12-8 lead at the interval, before converting two more penalties to propel the French outfit into pole position.
Farrell was on hand to reduce the 10-point deficit to seven by scoring between the posts, but any hopes of a comeback were extinguished after the Aviva Premiership leaders went down to 14 men following prop Mako Vunipola's 10-minute sin-bin for not rolling away.
Doussain closed the door on Saracens in the dying stages to restore the 10-point advantage and bag his 21st point of the contest, as the hosts qualified for the last-eight stage of the competition.
Shane Callaghan
