Toulouse won a record fifth European Champions Cup and their first since 2010 thanks to a 22-17 win over La Rochelle, who played much of the match a man light.
Both sides traded penalty blows during a feisty opening at Twickenham, with the scores level at 6-6 in the 27th minute thanks to Ihaia West's successful kick for La Rochelle.
But they suffered a massive setback just a few moments later as Levani Botia floored Maxime Medard with an ugly high hit.
As Botia walked off towards the sin-bin, the television match official ensured his punishment was upgraded to a red card, the first ever in a Champions Cup final.
Yet La Rochelle made it to the break with a 12-9 lead, with West's four kicks to Romain Ntamack's three the difference after a compelling – albeit brutal – first half.
West missed the target early in the second half, though, and Ntamack again evened the score as Toulouse started to up the ante.
La Rochelle were putting up a good fight with their 14 men but Toulouse finally got the match's first try with an hour played, Juan Cruz Mallia going over out wide after being fed by Selevasio Tolofua.
Toulouse looked to be coasting home as they went 22-12 up with the conversion, though a Tawera Kerr-Barlow try with five minutes to go made life a little nervy.
However, Toulouse held on to seal their fifth European crown and surpass Leinster on four, with La Rochelle's maiden appearance in a final ending in disappointment.
Dave Kilcoyne: Ireland are frothing at the mouth to tackle Scotland at World Cup
Prop Dave Kilcoyne believes Ireland’s players are “frothing at the mouth” to face Scotland and insists there is no sense of self-satisfaction following a euphoric win over South Africa.
Andy Farrell’s men underlined their status as Test rugby’s top-ranked nation by defeating the reigning champions 13-8 last weekend in Paris.
But progression to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals is not yet assured moving towards next Saturday’s return to Stade de France for a pivotal showdown with the Scots.
Munster loosehead Kilcoyne believes a memorable evening against the Springboks was “parked” during some well-earned time off as attention quickly shifted to the team’s final Pool B fixture.
“Lads went away and spent a bit of downtime and were itching to get back in, bouncing, and it’s all eyes on Scotland now,” he said.
“That game is parked, we’ve a couple of massive learnings from it and we definitely won’t be falling in love with ourselves.
“Paulie (forwards coach Paul O’Connell) had a few tips for us in areas we were deficient in and we were out there (in training) making sure we had them right for Scotland.
View this post on Instagram“In a competition like this you’ve got to keep learning with every game and you’ve got to keep getting better.
“Next week poses a massive challenge to us again so we’ve got to prepare as best we can for that.
“Everyone’s frothing at the mouth to be involved.”
Kilcoyne is enjoying his second World Cup, having overcome the scare of suffering a hamstring tear during last month’s training camp in Portugal.
The 34-year-old remained in the French capital with other members of the squad to enjoy a couple of days off after the South Africa match before travelling back to camp in Tours ahead of schedule.
Kilcoyne feels the current Ireland setup is the best he has been involved in and praised the impact of head coach Andy Farrell.
“I’m loving it over here, you read people writing about the incredible environment Faz (Farrell) has created for the players,” said Kilcoyne.
“And I don’t say it for the sake of saying it, but I think his emotional intelligence is through the roof.
View this post on Instagram“You look at that South Africa game, such a big occasion physically and mentally fatiguing and to have the foresight to give the lads two days’ break, he probably knew how mentally and physically fatiguing that game was going to be for the whole country.
“I’m not going to be saying about other coaching environments but this is definitely the best Ireland environment I’ve ever been involved in since I’ve been playing, 100 per cent.
“When there’s great camaraderie in the squad, you love being around it.”
Captain Ardie Savea proud of New Zealand’s 14-try drubbing of Italy
New Zealand captain Ardie Savea expressed his pride after the All Blacks demolished Italy at the Rugby World Cup.
An opening defeat by France that put their quarter-final hopes in jeopardy was forgotten as they ran in 14 tries in Lyon, eventually winning 96-17.
Savea told ITV1: “Not just myself but all the boys that played tonight, to put that effort in, I’m very proud.
“We’ve got talent across the board. We hadn’t really clicked but tonight we played some free rugby and that’s how I want my boys to play. We put a lot into this week and we got the rewards tonight.”
Centre Jordie Barrett added: “It’s massively satisfying. We didn’t start the tournament the way we wanted to but we put a few things in place and a step in the right direction tonight.”
He is not getting carried away about the All Blacks’ chances in the tournament as a whole, though, saying: “We’re one day at a time. I know it sounds cliche but we nailed our preparation for this game.
“We’ve got Uruguay in front of us in six days’ time so we’re not going to treat our preparation any differently and anything further than that is a bonus.”
Italy now face the prospect of having to beat France to have any chance of reaching the last eight, and fly-half Tommaso Allan felt his side contributed heavily to their downfall.
“When you give so many penalties away against New Zealand and they keep playing in your half, they’re going to keep scoring,” he said. “We lost all our scrums, lost all our line-outs really, so it’s just tough to start from that.
“We talked at half-time about trying to get some confidence for next week. We know it’s going to be as tough as this if not tougher. We’ve just got to stick together now. Start from scratch, don’t even think about this game, throw it in the bin.”
New Zealand close on World Cup quarter-final spot with 14-try mauling of Italy
New Zealand lit the touchpaper on their Rugby World Cup campaign with a 14-try hammering of Italy.
Defeat by France had left the All Blacks at risk of missing out on the quarter-finals but there appears no chance of that after a 96-17 romp in Lyon.
Aaron Smith scored a hat-trick of tries in the first half while lock Sam Whitelock came off the bench in the second half to overtake Richie McCaw as the most-capped All Black in Test history with his 149th appearance.
Italy would have dumped New Zealand out of the competition with a win but that never looked remotely on the cards from the moment in the sixth minute when Beauden Barrett launched a perfect cross-field kick for Will Jordan, who performed a leaping touchdown in the corner.
Tommaso Allan got Italy on the board early with a penalty but the rest of the first half was a horror show as Smith crossed three times, Ardie Savea twice and Mark Telea once, with the line-out proving particularly profitable.
Richie Mo’unga converted all seven first-half tries and nine in total, missing only his 10th attempt before being substituted.
Trailing 49-3 at half-time, Italy came out strongly for the second half and scored their first try in the 48th minute, Ange Capuozzo showing his speed in the corner.
But the All Blacks went straight down the other end and crossed again, Brodie Retallick applying the finish touch after Scott Barrett had charged down an attempted clearance.
Cam Roigard was denied a try after he was deemed to have made a double movement but moments later Dalton Papali’i notched the All Blacks’ ninth score.
They were approaching a century as Dane Coles twice, Damian McKenzie, Jordan and Anton Lienert-Brown all scythed through the Italian defence.
The final word went to Italy through Montanna Ioane’s try but this was emphatically the All Blacks’ night.
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