Toulouse head coach Ugo Mola said on Sunday that the South African side had “turned things around” in the Champions Cup after his French club secured a last 16 tie against the Bulls with a 20-16 win over Munster.
The Pretoria-based Sharks, Stormers and Bulls have reached the knockout stage in their first participation in a competition previously contested only by European teams.
Record five-time champion Toulouse needed only a bonus point in the re-run of the 2008 final to ensure home advantage with the next round played in early April, when they will play the Bulls.
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“The South African team has turned things around,” Mola told reporters.
“You might as well play because he’s here. I can’t wait,” he added.
Munster can claim the home tie for themselves with a bonus-point win over the Top 14 leaders.
Nine of the 11 Toulouse players named in France’s squad for the Six Nations were part of Sunday’s 23-match squad.
Fly-half Joey Carbery started for the day’s away side after being excluded from Ireland’s Six Nations set-up, while Jack Crowley, picked for the national squad, was in midfield.
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The home side led 11-8 at half-time as flanker John Hodnett responded for the visitors after Argentina’s Juan Cruz Mallia dived early for Toulouse.
Ireland lock Tadhg Beirne silenced the sell-out home crowd eight minutes after the break as he found his way through the defense despite Carbery missing his second conversion.
Munster lead 13-11 with half an hour remaining but still need to collect the bonus point to claim home last 16 tie.
Saracens at home
Toulouse camped in Munster’s 22m and Melvyn Jaminet added his fifth three-pointer with six minutes to go in front.
Later, in the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh continued to defeat Saracens, who won the last of the three titles in 2019.
Despite losing 20-14, the English team still claimed to have lost the game at home.
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Earlier, Montpellier South African scrum-half Cobus Reinach knocked London Ireland out of the Champions Cup as well as the Challenge Cup with a try that secured a 21-21 draw.
The French club have qualified for the next stage of the top tier.
By the end of Saturday’s action, the teams in the last 16 had all been known, including Leinster who defeated Racing 92 36-10 at Lansdowne Road, the venue for the May 20 final to claim the top seeding in Pool A.