Toulouse fade away against St Helens

Saints scored 10 tries with Maurie Fa'asavalu, Gary Wheeler and Chris Flannery grabbing two each in the eventual 56-16 rout.

Chris Dean, Ade Gardner, Andrew Dixon and Tony Puletua added the others with debutant Jamie Foster kicking eight goals from as many attempts.

Toulouse, who took a shock early lead, scored tries through Vincent Duport, Carlos Mendes Varela and Martin Mitchell.

Saints assistant coach Kieron Purtill was pleased with the result, but paid tribute to the travel-weary French side.

Purtill said: "We gave them some plaudits for what they have encountered on their travels and they got off to a good start.

"They caught us cold but we got back in gear as soon as we could.

"They played some nice football, they have some internationals in there. They will ruffle a few feathers in the Championship and put a package together to apply for Super League so we knew what they were capable of.

"But it was a big ask for them to play and their fans should be proud of what they achieved.

"We picked a team to do a job and they came up with the right result in the end.

"James Roby has been getting better and better over the last four weeks and is causing defences all kinds of problems.

"So too is Maurie Fa'asavalu, who made some telling breaks up the middle. He is devastating against tiring defences."

It was nonetheless a brave effort from Toulouse and their proud coach Gilles Dumas said: "After 24 hours of travelling we were very tired but we showed a very good first half with the football and showed good defence.

"There were a few mistakes but I am very proud of my players tonight. It was also a very good performance because at half-time they were tired and suffering with cramp.

"We had a very good welcome from the fans and the players appreciated that welcome.

"Our first-half rugby was fantastic but our players were really tired at the end."