TOP 14

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Toulouse stretch their lead

Friday 28th March 2008

Toulouse have one foot in the Top 14 semi-finals after a dour 12-6 win over Biarritz in the Stade Municipal on Friday.

In front of 36,000 fans, the teams endeavoured to attack in good conditions, but singularly failed to serve up any of the attacking rugby promised in the build-up.

Two early drop goals by Jean-Baptiste Elissalde - in the unfamiliar role of fly-half - put the home team in control as they dominated the early exchanges, in a first half punctuated by no less than 34 set piece stoppages of one kind or another.

That was the half-time score, with Elissalde's international counterpart Dimitri Yachvili missing a relatively easy penalty.

Yachvili missed a sitter early in the second half, but eventually got his team on the scoreboard after 50 minutes with a penalty in front of the posts.

Four minutes later, Elissalde replied with a penalty of his own to extend the lead back to six, and following a clever chip through with five minutes to go, he landed his third drop goal - with the aid of the TMO - tyo make it 12-3.

However, a contentious penalty awarded in the final minute by referee Christophe Berdos, who had a difficult night, gave Yachvili the chance to grab his team a bonus point.

It will be scant consolation to Biarritz though, who are now likely to drop out of the top four places with Perpignan and Castres both expected to win tomorrow.

The scorers:

For Toulouse:
Drop goals: Elissalde 3
Pen: Elissalde

For Biarritz:
Pens: Yachvili 2

Referee: Christophe Berdos