Toulouse Olympique 54 Coventry Bears 6

Saturday March 5th 3.30pm kick off

Blagnac RFC, Toulouse.

On Saturday the Bears played newly entered French Elite Champions Toulouse Olympique in Blagnac RFC. The French side were clinical in both attack and defence and punished Coventry at every opportunity to score a haul of points which showed they mean business in League One and will no doubt be pushing for promotion at the end of the season.

Mark Kheirallah scored 30 points the Australian full-back's hat-trick and nine goals the majority while Danny Hulme weighed in with four tries and Mourad Kriouache and Gregory White also crossed for the French outfit, Liam Thompson went over for the Bears only score.

Head Coach Tom Tsang Commented;

It's obviously disappointing to lose by that amount. We trained brilliantly all week and Toulouse looked after us well in terms of hotel and facilities, so our preparations were spot on.

We didn't do ourselves justice though as We started the game poorly, giving away cheap penalties and making basic errors like missing touch from our own penalties, which put us on the back foot for much of the first half.

In the second half we were much improved but had done so much defending in the first that we didn't have much in the tank to pose any genuine threat.

They were big, strong and fast and executed their plays simply but efficiently. The pitch today was very heavy after torrential rain for a few days . I can see Toulouse living up to their billing as a top two club in this league, especially when the pitches dry out in the summer.

Bears Team:

1. Joel James

2.Jamahl Hunte

3.Eddie Medforth

4.Matt Reid

5.Hayden Freeman

6.Jay Lobwein

7.Charlie O'Mara

8.James Geurtjens

9.Richie Hughes (Capt)

10.Jack Morrison

11.liam Thompson

12.Chris Barratt

13.Jono Miliszewski

14.James Redman

15.Tommy Holland

16.Elliott Liku

17.Adam Saynor

This Sunday the Bears take on Rochdale Hornets at 3pm kick off at the Butts ParArena, Coventry Rugby.