Toulouse snuck an 18-13 win today over an ever improving Munster side, at a severely foggy Thomond Park.
One of the main talking points heading into the match was the availability of Toulouse's talismanic scrumhalf Antoine Dupont, who had a red card ban controversially reduced, allowing him to play this afternoon.
What he delivered was a man-of-the-match performance, and some of the genius of his play was well summed up by Eddie O'Sullivan on RTE.
"You have to give credit to Toulouse the way they controlled the game at key moments. But Munster will kick themselves because there were occasions when they had Toulouse under the cosh and they made mistakes, and Toulouse punished them on the back of it. But I would say overall Munster had a lot to take out of that game."
Now again you have to say that Dupont was the key. He seems to know every moment what the most important thing to do is.
Whether it's the quick tap or the kick to the corner or to offload the ball. And he got this audacious flick of a pass off his foot to a player out of nothing.
So he is a mastermind.
Dupont Masterclass Against Munster
Beautiful touch from Dupont.
Arnold ahead of the kick? Definitely.
Would I still say play on? Definitely.
Some things are too nice to blow up.#MUNST pic.twitter.com/wmRpVNCzgK— EK Rugby Analysis (@ek_rugby) December 11, 2022
READ HERE: Rowntree Says Munster Haven't Discussed Toulouse Heartbreak At Aviva
"Having said that," continued O'Sullivan. "Toulouse came here knowing that it was a key game for them and that they had to dominate certain areas. It took them awhile, but you could see Toulouse were playing to the set-piece. The lineout, the scrum, the lineout, the scrum."
While the loss will be massively frustrating for Munster, their decision to go for the posts near the end of the match, to secure a losing bonus point, could prove vital when the pool stages come to a close.
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