Last Saturday, at Twickenham, London in front of a crowd of 10 thousand ns ( the capacity of the venue being 82 thousand), Toulouse has managed to win the Heineken Champions Cup against La Rochelle, 22-17.
The first half had no tries, only penalties conceded by both teams. It was Stade Rochelais who dominated the first half with a better discipline in defense, leading at the break with 12 to 9. However, Fijian centre Levani Botia was penalized with a red card in the first 40 minutes.
Having an advantage in the second half in terms of more players on the field, Toulouse were determined to grab the win and utterly the 5th Heineken Cup ( a record of trophies) and controlled both in possession of the ball and in field percentage. After only 6 minutes they managed to tie the score through another penalty converted by Romain Ntamack Cheslin Kolbe was close to scoring a try but it was disallowed since while being tackled his foot was over the sideline, after the referee checked with the TMO(television match official). However the try came a few minutes later when the Argentinian Juan Cruz Manila managed to find the gap and run towards the try line.
La Rochelle was still in the game and with 10 minutes to go, scrum half Kerr-Barlow, after the forwards pushed a few inches from the line, he grabbed the ball and went through. Unfortunately for Stade Rochelais, Ihaia West did not convert the try, which forced his team to score another try in order to equalize or win. Stade Tolousain’s defense held still and the cup was theirs.
