HIGHLIGHTS | Toulouse hold out Munster in the Thomond Park fog in Champions Cup opener

In difficult conditions, the French side were able to leave Limerick with the spoils following a hard-fought contest. a

Munster were forced to settle for a losing bonus point at Thomond Park with Toulouse claiming a narrow victory in the opening game of this season’s Champions Cup game.

The match was played on an extremely cold day with heavy fog making conditions difficult for both sides. Despite the conditions, a crowd of 21,884 supporters made it the largest crowd across round one of the Champions Cup as Munster fell to a 13-18 defeat.

The sides were level at 10-all at half-time but Toulouse scored the only try of the second half just after the break and kept Munster at bay for the remainder in the worsening conditions.

Joey Carbery dived over for the first try on nine minutes with good carries in the build-up from Shane Daly and Niall Scannell. Carbery added his own conversion to make it 7-0.

Matthis Lebel replied for Toulouse, scoring in the left corner despite Daly’s recovery tackle before Thomas Ramos converted to make it 7-7.

Ramos put Toulouse ahead for the first time on 29 minutes as Munster looked to attack from inside their own half but Jean Kleyn was penalised for not releasing.

Munster continued to play most of the rugby and were rewarded just before half-time as Toulouse were pinged at the breakdown with Carbery’s penalty making it 10-all.

Early in the second half, the Toulouse pack made some hard yards with Antoine Dupont going down the blindside and passing for half-time replacement Lucas Tauzin to score in the right corner with his first touch.

A harsh penalty against Munster saw Ramos kick Toulouse eight points ahead with eight minutes to go.

Munster kept going and won a penalty on 75 minutes inside the Toulouse 22 with Carbery kicking the points to make it a one-score game once again.

Dupont was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on with three minutes to go and Munster went on the attack again but Toulouse disrupted the breakdown and managed to see out the final minutes.

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Munster now travel to Franklins Gardens next Sunday to take on the Northampton Saints in the second round of the Champions Cup.