Reigning champions Bordeaux made the most of two costly cards for Toulouse to beat their French rivals and set up a Champions Cup semi-final against Prem holders Bath.
Six-time champions Toulouse looked on top in the first half, but Dorian Aldegheri received a 20-minute red card and inspirational captain Antoine Dupont was sin-binned, and the hosts took advantage in a compelling battle.
These two teams contributed 24 players to the France squad which won the Six Nations and – while the game provided fewer tries than many anticipated – the action was relentless.
Arthur Retiere’s try with six minutes left finally ended the contest and keeps Bordeaux’s hopes of retaining the trophy alive.
French clubs have won each of the past five editions of the competition, with Exeter Chiefs’ win in 2020 the most recent success by a team from outside France.
Given the galaxy of stars on display the opening quarter saw a surprising lack of tries. Bath and Northampton shared nine in the first half on Friday but defences were on top in a tremendously disciplined opening at Stade Chaban Delmas.
Toulouse dominated early possession and territory but were shut out by some dogged resistance from the hosts and were punished as Bordeaux scored with their first real attack 23 minutes in when a line-out was mauled over the line by hooker Maxime Lamothe.
From the restart Toulouse won a turnover and Jack Willis carried down to the line, before quick hands sent fly-half Romain Ntamack in to score and Thomas Ramos’ conversion put the visitors in front.
Toulouse were reduced to 14 men for 20 minutes before the break as prop Aldegheri charged Damian Penaud with his shoulder, but they then instantly scored to stretch their half-time lead to 12-5 as wing Teddy Thomas found space out wide to gallop in untouched.
Bordeaux needed to make their numerical advantage count after the restart but conceded a penalty inside 30 seconds which allowed Ramos to kick Toulouse further ahead.
From there on in though, it was one-way traffic.
France fly-half Matthieu Jalibert scored from his own kick through to bring Bordeaux back to within three points with more than 10 minutes left on the red card.
The game was much more open as both sides tired and Dupont was then shown a yellow card for a trip as he tried to make a desperate tackle in the corner, and Toulouse momentarily went down to 13 men.
Bordeaux made it count with a drive from their forwards and Ben Tameifuna piled over to put them ahead, with Maxime Lucu kicking a penalty to open up a seven-point lead before Toulouse were restored to 15 players for the final 10 minutes.
But it was Bordeaux who cranked up the pressure late on and, after some last-ditch defending shut out the forwards, replacement back Retiere found space out wide to score a crucial fourth try.
