Toulouse ended Welsh interest in the Heineken Cup with a fine quarter-final display to beat Cardiff Blues.

The Welsh visitors gifted a try to Maxime Medard in the first minute and were then always chasing the game.

A Jason Spice try, later sin-binned as was Toulouse’s Cedric Heymans, kept the Blues in touch at half-time 16-10 down.

But Toulouse marched away after the break with Maleli Kunavore, Vincent Clerc and Jean Bouilhou tries, although Ben Blair scored a Blues consolation.

With the Ospreys having lost at Saracens earlier on Sunday in their quarter-final, the Blues took the field at Le Stadium as the last standard-bearers of Welsh hopes in Europe.

But whatever game plan the Blues arrived with was blown within the first minute as Toulouse scored a breakaway try.

Tom Shanklin’s attempted grubber under pressure was seized at point-blank range by Kunavore, allowing the Fijian to kick deep into unguarded Blues territory.

Medard had too much of a head-start on Blues wing Tom James and the Toulouse speedster gathered the bouncing ball to go under the posts.

Jean-Baptiste Elissalde stroked the comfortable conversion and soon added a penalty when Maama Molitika carelessly detached too early from a scrum.

Blues could have been forgiven for letting their heads drop, especially when Blair missed an eighth-minute penalty kick that might have helped steady nerves.

But the Welsh showed why they have reached the quarter-finals this season for the first time since becoming a regional side.

A flowing backs move saw James on the left wing show great strength to duck inside Medard and feed Shanklin on his right shoulder.

The Wales centre was brought down just short but scrum-half Spice was on hand to dive over from the ruck, Blair adding the extras to narrow the deficit to 10-7.

Elissalde replied with his second penalty but Toulouse then nearly gifted the visitors a try when Heymans’ quick line-out went horribly wrong.

Jamie Roberts got to the ball first and popped a pass to Shanklin, who could not avoid stumbling over his own wing as he went for the try line.

Heymans then killed the ball at the resulting ruck in his haste to atone, earning a yellow card and gifting three points to the boot of Blair.

Back came Toulouse and from the restart the charging French pack gathered for Elissalde to arrow over a cheeky drop-goal and a 16-10 lead.

Before half-time the Blues also suffered a sin-binning, when Spice had a kick charged down and like Heymans compounded the mistake by rushing back to kill the ball.

After the incident-packed first period, the second half started out of character with an attritional struggle in no-man’s land.

Toulouse finally broke through thanks to Elissalde, the France half-back adding a penalty before dummying a drop-goal and breaking down the right.

Heymans provided the link and Kunavore rounded the despairing cover to go under the posts for another seven-pointer.

A twin Blues substitution saw the Robinson brothers, Nick and Jamie, take the field and the pair combined brilliantly to send Blair over, the full-back converting his try.

But any hopes of a recovery were soon snuffed out, as rampaging lock Patricio Albacete punched a huge hole in the Welsh defence that gave Clerc acres of space to add Toulouse’s third try.

Elissalde stroked a fine conversion as his final act, leaving the field to a standing ovation with the game won as Valentin Courrent was given the last eight minutes.

Fellow replacement Bouilhou underlined Toulouse’s superiority with another try, and Heymans with a drop-goal, as the French advanced to meet London Irish at Twickenham in the semi-finals.

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Toulouse: C Heymans; V Clerc, M Kunavore, Y Jauzion, M Medard; J-B Elissalde, B Kelleher; D Human, W Servat, S Perugini, F Pelous (capt), P Albacete, Y Nyanga, T Dusautoir, S Sowerby.
Replacements: V Courrent for Elissalde (73), J Bouihlou for Nyanga (57). Not Used: A Vernet-Basualdo, J Poux, R Millo-Chlusky, M Ahotaeiloa, G Lamboley.

Sin Bin: Heymans (27).

Blues: B Blair; J Roberts, T Shanklin, G Thomas, T James; D Flanagan, J Spice; G Jenkins, G Williams, T Filise, D Jones, P Tito, M Molitika, M Williams, X Rush (capt).
Replacements: S Morgan for Tito (52), N. Robinson for Flanagan (60), J. Robinson for Shanklin (60). Not Used: Yapp, R. Thomas, White, Rees.

Cardiff Blues welcome back flanker Martyn Williams, lock Paul Tito and prop Tauf’au Filise to the XV for Friday’s crucial Heineken Cup match.

Jamie Robinson returns from injury to be on the bench, but Rhys Thomas (ankle strain), Andy Powell (flu) and Tom James (infection) are out.

The Blues are level on points with Bristol at the top of the group.

Coach Dai Young said: “This is the first realistic opportunity of reaching the last eight for a number of years.”
 
He added: “There’s only one reason we haven’t before and that’s because we haven’t been good enough.

“However, we’ve compiled a squad which is very competitive and I think we’ve shocked a few people that we are in this position.
“What we have to do is keep our squad fit for both games, as we are a bit stretched, and take our opportunities.

“It’s not an easy path, we still have a lot to do, but we feel are capable of doing it.”

The Blues are expecting a bumper crowd for the match with nearly 9,000 tickets being sold already.

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Blues: Ben Blair; Jamie Roberts, Tom Shanklin, Dafydd Hewitt, Gareth Thomas; Nick Macleod, Jason Spice; Gethin Jenkins, Gareth Williams, Tauf’au Filise, Deiniol Jones, Paul Tito, Maama Molitika, Martyn Williams, Xavier Rush (capt).
Replacements: John Yapp, Duane Goodfield, Scott Morgan, Mark Lewis, Richie Rees, Rhys Jones, Jamie Robinson.

Blues lock Paul Tito will face no further action after being sent off for fighting at the end of his side’s 11-6 win over Newport Gwent Dragons.

A WRU disciplinary panel decided the red card for trading blows with Dragons back-row Joe Bearman on Boxing Day was sufficient punishment.

Bearman will learn his fate on Monday, while teammate Wayne Evans and Blues flanker Ben White will also appear.

The pair have to face the panel after being cited in the same game.

Blues coach Dai Young said of Tito’s hearing: “We are pleased with the decision taken by the disciplinary panel and that Paul will be available for some big matches coming up over the forthcoming weeks.”

Two tries from Gareth Thomas on his full debut inspired Cardiff Blues to a 32-15 victory over Sale Sharks.

The Blues scored five tries on the way to victory to get their EDF Energy Cup campaign off to a fine start.

First-half tries from Jason Spice, Thomas (2) and captain Xavier Rush secured a bonus point, with Tom James crossing late-on.

Sale did fight back with second-half tries from Lee Thomas and Rory Lamont but it was too little, too late.

The visitors, missing World Cup stars Mark Cueto, Andrew Sheridan and Sebastien Chabal, looked out of sorts from the very first whistle.

Cardiff Blues made a scintillating start with Spice scoring their opening try of the evening within four minutes.

The scrum-half went over in the corner, finishing off Deiniol Jones’ powerful break down the wing.

They could have been further ahead a few minutes later, but Charlie Hodgson reacted well to get to James’ chip ahead of the chasing Cardiff Blues attackers.

But despite the intense early pressure, the visitors got themselves on the score-sheet with Lee Thomas sending over a penalty for 5-3.

Those were the last points Sale scored for the rest of the half as the Blues ran riot for the remaining 25 minutes.

Outside-half Nicky Robinson edged them further ahead with a penalty before Wales’ record try scorer Gareth Thomas took centre stage.

Thomas scored two tries and was influential in setting up another with the Blues going into half-time 27-3 up.

First he cut through feeble Sale defence to open his account with the Blues in only his second appearance for the Welsh region.

And his second try was more impressive, with Thomas finishing off a stunning counter-attack which started with captain Rush and ended with ‘Alfie’ diving over in the corner.

The Blues secured a valuable bonus point within 30 minutes, with Rush getting his name on the scoresheet.

New Zealander Rush crossed courtesy of a fine break from his side with Gareth Thomas selling the Sale defence a wonderful dummy just outside his own 22, before releasing full-back Ben Blair.

Blair was tackled just a few feet short of his own line, but managed to off-load to Rush who touched down the Blues’ fourth try.

Robinson sent over the conversion, his second of the half to compound Sale’s misery.

With the game won, the second half lacked the intensity of the first and it was Sale who were next to score.

Former Blues centre Lee Thomas scored it, diving over from close range following Julien Laharrague’s fine break.

Thomas sent over the conversion to reduce the deficit further.

But it was the Blues who had the last say, with James catching a cross-kick to score in injury time to cement victory for his side.

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Cardiff Blues: Blair, James, Shanklin, G. Thomas, J. Roberts, N. Robinson, Spice, Jenkins, R. Thomas, G. Powell, Jones, Tito, Molitika, Sowden-Taylor, Rush.
Replacements: Macleod for Shanklin (51), Rees for Spice (53), Yapp for Jenkins (63), G. Williams for R. Thomas (70), White for Jones (70), Sidoli for Tito (63).
Not Used: R. Williams.

Sale: Laharrague, Lamont, Keil, Thomas, Ripol, Hodgson, Martens, Faure, Bruno, Bourrust, Schofield, Cox, C. Jones, Lund, Bonner-Evans.
Replacements: Mayor for Keil (41), Hanley for Ripol (75), Wigglesworth for Martens (51), Evans for Bourrust (51), Hills for Schofield (58), Day for C. Jones (35), Briggs for Lund (60).

Gareth Thomas will make his first start for the Blues since his summer move from Toulouse in Friday’s EDF Energy Cup opener against Sale.

Xavier Rush, Robin Sowden-Taylor and Maama Molitika make up a new back row, while Jason Spice and Nicky Robinson return at half-back.

Sale welcome Sebastien Bruno straight back into the starting XV following his fringe involvement at the World Cup.

Mark Cueto, Andrew Sheridan and Sebastien Chabal are not ready to play.

Cardiff Blues coach Dai Young, meanwhile, says he is confident about his side’s hopes in this year’s Anglo-Welsh competition.

 ”This is the strongest squad I have had since I’ve been in charge of the region,” said Young.

“I’ve been banging the drum now for a while saying that we were improving over the past few years. We are not the finished product yet but we have enough strength in depth to be competitive and we are in the competition to win it.”

The Blues reached the semi-final stages of the competition last season, eventually losing to fellow Welsh region the Ospreys.

And Young is relishing the chance to lock horns with the old enemy once again.

He said: “We enjoyed the experience last season. Sale are one of the strongest teams in England and we know they will come here to play.

“An away victory puts them in a very strong position and they will focus on victory and will fight for that.”

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Blues: Blair; James, Shanklin, G Thomas, Roberts; Robinson, Spice; Jenkins, R Thomas, Powell, Jones, Tito, Molitika, Sowden-Taylor, Rush (capt).
Replacements: Yapp, G Williams, Sidoli, White, Rees, Macleod, R Williams.

Sale Sharks: J Laharrague, R Lamont, R Keil, L Thomas, O Ripol, C Hodgson, S Martens, L Faure, S Bruno, B Bourrust, D Schofield, S Cox, C Jones, M Lund, N Bonner-Evans.
Replacements: N Briggs, B Evans/S Turner, C Day, M Hills, R Wigglesworth, C Mayor, E Seveali’I/ S Hanley