Heineken Cup – Toulouse Through To Final

Former All-Black flanker Isitolo Maka’s
second-half try saw European champions Toulouse scrape a 19-11
victory over
French rivals Biarritz in the European Cup semi-final on
Saturday and
become the first side to make three finals.

His try came just after their opponents had taken the lead for the
first
time when Philippe Bidabe had touched down but Biarritz were let down
all
match by French international scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili’s
placekicking as he
landed just two penalties from five attempts.

By contrast, his Toulouse counterpart Yann Delaigue had a superb
day
kicking 14 of their points including the last second drop goal to
wrap up the
victory.

Maka said it was a much deserved victory.
“I wasn’t on for that long, 30 minutes I think, but it is
definitely the
best performance from me in this tournament,” said the
28-year-old, who was on
the bench until replacing Christian Labit in the second-half.

Toulouse captain Fabien Pelous praised Delaigue for his masterful
performance.
“He ran things today and made it possible for us to reach the
final,” said
Pelous, who could add the European Cup to the Six Nations Grand Slam
he led
France to last month.

“It was tight but I always knew it would be and it is only
something like
Yann’s play that set us apart,” he added.

Biarritz coach Patrice Lagisquet was understandabnly disappointed
as he
tried to take them to their first ever European Cup final.
“It is frustrating to have got to this stage and be
beaten,” he said.

“However we made too many errors and that you cannot do at
this level,”
added Lagisquet, who was known as the Bayonne Express during his
playing
career.

Yachvili’s miserable day with the boot continued in the
second-half –
Toulouse led 9-3 at half-time – as he missed an eminently kickable
penalty six
minutes into the period.
However he finally slotted his second penalty three minutes later
and it
seemed to spark life into his backs as it was from virtually their
next foray
into Toulouse territory that Bidabe was sent over by Nicolas Brusque
in the
far corner after a flowing move.

Yachvili missed the resulting conversion while at the same moment
Maka
replaced Labit which added much-needed impetus to the attack and he
was
deservedly on hand to touch down having broken through two Biarritz
defenders
after a move that had been started by Delaigue’s neat sidestep.

Delaigue added the conversion to give Toulouse a 16-11 lead iwth
15 minutes
remaining.
Delaigue gave the champions the lead in the 13th minute with a
neatly taken
penalty but Biarritz missed a chance to level the match five minutes
later as
Yachvili’s penalty attempt drifted wide of the post.

He made no mistake, however, when presented with another
opportunity two
minutes later to tie the match at 3-3 but Delaigue then restored
Toulouse’s
lead a few minutes later.

Yachvili failed again to restore parity after 30 minutes as he
dragged his
penalty wide of the posts and Delaigue hammered home their differing
fortunes
by landing a third penalty on the stroke of half-time to give
Toulouse a 9-3
lead.

AFP – 2004.