Following a 64-21 victory for Toulouse over Exeter Chiefs in the Investec Champions Cup, here’s our five takeaways from the fixture at Sandy Park on Sunday.

The top line

What can you say about a game that saw Exeter lose their first match against French opposition at Sandy Park for eight seasons, their first pool round defeat at home in 11 matches and a shipping of some 60 points against the champions of Europe?

Well, the first thing you can say is that despite the unflattering scoreline, Exeter can take a lot of pride about the way they stayed in the match, sometimes hanging on by their fingertips in the face of a nuclear onslaught from rugby’s finest superpower. Chiefs’ resilience and the way they approached the second half is credit to them, but against this Toulouse team, they simply couldn’t compete with the speed, teamwork and brilliance of the visitors.

Powered by the great Antoine Dupont, Toulouse starred all over the pitch. In the centres, Pierre Louis Barassi had an absolute baller of a performance, grabbing two and making another for Matthis Lebel, Toulouse’s favourite delicatessen. In the pack, Francois Cros gave us another world class performance of the back-row’s arts with crucial work in three of the visitors’ tries and the dismantling of the hosts’ lineout, whilst Thibaud Flament, Theo Ntamack and Julien Marchand all crossed for scores.

For Chiefs, Tom Wyatt vindicated the rattle in Sandy Park about his pace and appetite for try scoring, whilst Ross Vintcent stood head and shoulders above the rest of his back-row, as he was the one player who stood toe to toe with Cros, Alexandre Roumat and Jack Willis at the breakdown, doing his reputation no harm in the process.

But in the final analysis, this was an absolute pasting – a team playing mercurial rugby without fear against a side that doesn’t know where their next win is coming from – but Chiefs need to capture the good stuff they did – there was plenty of it – and look to turn around their season during the festive break.

The game in numbers

At one point near the end of the game, the Sandy Park ground staff may well have been excused for seeking planning permission to extend the part of the scoreboard that said ‘Toulouse’ as the scores kept on coming.

11 tries to three tells its own tale, but some of the individual and team stats for the visitors make remarkable reading; Toulouse made over 500 metres in 122 carries – but Exeter made a creditable 101 for 398 metres – from that you see the sheer difference in red zone efficiency between the two team – outlining Toulouse’s efficiency with attacking ball.

The lineout was a real issue for Chiefs with Cros and Flament stealing three and two respectively as a key part of the Exeter set-piece was absolutely dismantled in crucial areas by the marauding French forwards.

However, all those things pale into insignificance when you look at one simple statistic – Exeter missed 41 tackles and made only a 64% return on their defensive system. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a local vets side or, as here, the best club team on the planet – if your defence is missing two tackles in five then bluntly, you’re toast.

Secret sauce?

Many have asked what makes Toulouse the team they are – and if you spent a moment watching this game at Sandy Park you’d conclude that their greatest quality is doing the simple things well.

The snap of the last metre as they take or hit contact wins the collisions; the ability of their players to consistently work either side of the ball carrier to provide options is always there for the mercurial half-backs. And the speed to support that carrier and to believe in the ability of their teammates to take contact but offer continuity, whether it be with recycling, through contact, or from exquisite offloads as we saw time and time again from Dupont, confounds logic. They are the epitome of a heads up team, comfortable on the ball, confident in their handling, but, above all, trusting that their mates around them will simply continue the system that’s proven so successful for them.

Two of the first-half tries, the first by Dupont and the second from Lebel couldn’t have summed this up more. Dupont’s effort was made by a barrelling run and an exquisite offload from Cros to Roumat, who knew that his skipper would be on his shoulder. It was wonderful handling by the two French international back-rows, but they did it in the knowledge that their solo s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s would be supported by team ethics. Dupont and his backline will get all of the headlines after this match, but the work of Cros in four of the visitors’ tries was absolutely crucial for continuity, once again demonstrating his world-class command of the dark arts of back-row forward play.

The Lebel try summed up the Toulouse philosophy of having always having two options available for the carrier. Barassi skinned the Chiefs midfield with an electric 60 metre break, and as he ran into defensive cover, he had his skipper, Dupont on his left and Lebel, the openside winger coming back inside to make the extra man. It’s the sort of rugby that attack coaches photograph and make Christmas Cards from and a testimony to the brilliant systems that supports this generational team.

Dupont masterclass

And whilst we’re eulogising, those discussing the great Dupont might well ask what makes him so special?

Well, if you were in the crowd at Exeter on Sunday night, you’d be forgiven for drooling at the brilliance of the one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, but you might also have seen the components that make his game so effective.

Like the rest of his team, he does the simple things so well but he does them with a time of thought and speed of body that sets him aside from almost anyone else. Time his box kicks – from the touch of the ball until he launches it miles skyward is a blink of an eye – off both feet. He takes a fraction of a second to execute something that takes other Test half-backs a second or more to complete.

The length, accuracy and speed of his pass is staggering; there’s no visible dip in its velocity and it hits its targets with a percussive velocity that’s quite mind-blowing, never behind the man, never too far in front. His work in contact defies his size, taking on players physically twice his frame and winning virtually every time.

But – all of these qualities can be found in other players around the world and are not unique to Dupont. What really sets him aside is the time he has to complete his s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s. It appears he sees things so much earlier – that time almost stands still in front of him until he decides what the next play of the match is, just as he did for the Flament try when he spotted the lock in space in the blink of an eye and sent out a pinpoint pass for Flament to walk over unopposed, and early in the second half when, like a flash of lightening, he switched back against the grain to send the outstanding Barassi over against a defence that simply reacted slower than he did.

For sure, we are guilty of a Dupont love-in after the game on Sunday at Sandy Park, but if you had witnessed live the s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s of the man, you too would be reaching for the thesaurus, as the 15,000 watching simply ran out of superlatives for the brilliant French nine.

Exeter pride

This was only ever going to be a free-hit for Exeter, with arguably the greatest club side to ever play the game heading into town in Round Two of the Champions Cup, but they gave it a good go in the face of inevitable defeat and their second-half display, where they scored two outstanding tries, will allow them to look back on this match with much justified pride.

The Devonians have been found wanting up front this season, but the likes of Jacques Vermeulen, Vintcent – returned to the starting XV – and Ethan Roots carried with all the anger and hatred of a bull that had seen Toulouse red. Richard Capstick and Rusi Tuima – both developing locks after coming through the academy as back-rowers – more than competed with their French international counterparts. The front-row, again up against mighty opposition, arguably had the better of things in the scrum.

Around the park too, the likes of Tamati Tua and Ben Hammersley just worked their socks off. Josh Hodge was able to find gaps in the line and used his speed to good use, Henry Slade – who has attracted a degree of criticism in recent Test outings stayed resilient and believing in the face of the Toulouse onslaught and combined well with Stu Townsend for the most part (minus a few misplaced passes). Wyatt is also building steadily after an extended spell on the sidelines.

It’s been a very tough start to the campaign for the Chiefs, who have lost eight of their 11 games this season and sit bottom of the Premiership table, but this performance certainly didn’t reflect their form to date, and it should be the start of better times in the future.