Toulouse 36 Featherstone Rovers 10: Toulouse hit back to claim dominant victory

John Duffy’s men initially looked set for a great victory against their top four Betfred Championship rivals as they went over for two tries and led 10-0, but a Toulouse revival late in the first half turned into domination from the home team after the break.

There was something for Rovers fans to cheer as winger Luke Briscoe crossed for his 26th try of the season and took his tries in consecutive games tally to a modern-day record-breaking 16.

He took just four minutes to open the scoring for Fev after taking a fine offload from Martyn Ridyard.

They stretched their lead to 10 points on 23 minutes when Leeds Rhinos dual-reg duo Harry Newman and Jordan Lilley combined, the former leaping well to take the latter’s kick and go on to score a try that was converted by Ridyard. A superb first half-hour, however, proved to be for nothing as Toulouse began their fightback with Johnathon Ford’s pass putting full-back Mark Kheirallah over for a try he also goaled.

They were ahead as a kick through took a wicked bounce and was pounced upon by Anthony Marion. Kheirallah converted the try.

At the start of the second half Toulouse marched down field to force a drop-out then went over for their third try with Tyla Hepi breaking through. They turned the screw further with another drop-out forced and scored again as William Barthau jinked his way over.

Bastien Canet then scored for Toulouse before Briscoe thought he had scored his second late on, but the touch judge ruled he had put a foot in touch. Toulouse had the final word with Bastien Ader going over in the corner and Kheirallah converted.

Toulouse: Kheirallah; Maurel, Ader, Barthau, Marguerite; Ford, Robin; Boyer, Kriouache, Canet, Planas, Mika, Bentley. Subs: Bouzinac, Marion, Puech, Hepi.

Featherstone: Holmes; Briscoe, Taulapapa, Newman, Robinson; Ridyard, Lilley; Wheeldon, Carlile, Oledzki, Farrell, Turgut, Knowles. Subs: Moore, Hock, Brooks, Clark.

Referee: Liam Staveley.