Harlequins have risen to every previous occasion this season but the multi-coloured magic finally deserted them on Friday night. Only briefly did they threaten to add Toulouse to their impressive list of early-season victims and the French champions duly became the first side to defeat England's leading club in 15 games stretching back to early September.
Quins had their talented loosehead prop Joe Marler taken off on a stretcher with a hip injury in the final quarter, potentially bad news for England's new caretaker coaching team led by Stuart Lancaster. Marler is among the next generation of promising English forwards but this was an evening when too few Quins players produced their best rugby. Although the back-row duo of Chris Robshaw and Nick Easter both showed up well and the full-back Mike Brown had another reliably good game, Toulouse took an iron grip on the tight exchanges and seldom let go.
The return trip to the Midi next Sunday, on this evidence, could be another abrupt wake-up call. The likes of the France captain, Thierry Dusautoir, will not want to slacken the side's hold on Pool Six and Quins will have to improve substantially on this performance to gain any kind of reward. "The right side won," admitted Conor O'Shea, Quins' director of rugby. "They were incredibly physical and we lost the gainline battle. You need to ride your luck when you're playing against a team of that calibre. I think they'll be a tough challenge for anyone."
Quins were well aware Toulouse would present a stern test of their true quality. Two years ago, with Dean Richards still in charge, the London club led the same opponents 14-0 at the interval yet still contrived to lose 23-19. The home team are a steelier group nowadays but Toulouse, even without Clément Poitrenaud, Patricio Albacete and Gurthro Steenkamp, remain as consistently tough to beat as anyone in Europe.
Five of the visiting squad played a part in October's World Cup final in Auckland and the presence of two Kiwi outside-halves added extra piquancy. Neither Nick Evans nor Luke McAlister was involved in the tournament but they swapped early penalties with the air of men intent on proving a point or three. The sight of the Samoan brothers Johnston, James and Census, lining up on opposing teams further underlined what a global village the club game has become.
It was clearly one of those nights when Quins needed to establish some early momentum. Instead, apart from one promising break-out created by Easter, they were mostly on the back foot, trying to stop a rampaging Louis Picamoles. It was not a huge surprise when the big No8 again surged deep into home territory after 17 minutes and fed Dusautoir, who duly supplied a scoring pass to the powerful Fijian winger Timoci Matanavou, a first cousin of Racing Métro's Sireli Bobo.
A further penalty from McAlister stretched the gap to 11-3, a fair reflection of an opening half-hour when Quins' justified air of pre-match confidence visibly seeped away. Apart from their scramble defence there was not enough accuracy to bother an increasingly dominant Toulouse, for whom the scrum-half Luke Burgess again looked a shrewd signing. The zero tolerance approach of the referee, George Clancy, at the rucks hampered Quins' efforts and increasingly irritated the home supporters.
Clancy was loudly booed off at half-time but a capacity crowd knew deep down that blaming the official is rarely the whole story. Last week at Wasps there were signs that the Quins scrum had started to creak but their opponents failed to make them pay. Toulouse, like any self-respecting French pack, appeared to have watched the tape and pledged not to make the same mistake.
Quins could only redouble their efforts in the second half and tell themselves they had not become a bad side overnight. A lovely show and go from the former Cornish Pirates centre Matt Hopper helped generate a promising position and, after a quick penalty tap from Danny Care, Robshaw sent Brown scooting over for a trademark try after 49 minutes. Evans's fine conversion reignited the contest but a third McAlister penalty and a second try from the flying Matanavou after 65 minutes ultimately curtailed Quins's golden run.
Harlequins Brown; Stegmann, Hopper, Urdapilleta, Smith (Monye, h-t); Evans, Care; Marler (Lambert, 65), Brooker (Gray, 50), J Johnston, Vallejos, Robson, Fa'asavalu (Wallace, 69), Robshaw (capt), Easter.
Try Brown Pen Evans Con Evans.
Toulouse Médard; Clerc, Fritz (David, 54), Jauzion, Matanavou; McAlister, Burgess (Doussain, 64); Poux (Montes, 46), Botha (Servat, 53), C Johnston, Lamboley, Maestri (Millo-Chluski, 56), Nyanga, Dusautoir (capt), Picamoles (Sowerby, 71).
Tries Matanavou 2 Pens McAlister 3 Con McAlister.
Referee G Clancy (Ireland). Attendance 14,282
