News prior to the start of the game did not bode well. Bruce Reihana had failed a fitness test and Grayson was not 100% and so dropped to the bench. Jon Clarke moved to full-back with John Rudd taking his place on the wing. Shane Drahm replaced Grayson at fly-half.

The match itself started in almost perfect fashion for Saints. On five minutes a driving maul against the fabled Toulouse forwards resulted in the home team being forced to collapse the play. Shane stepped up and nailed the three points. Toulouse responded almost immediately and kicked deep to Clarke who could not escape the clutches of the on-rushing players. From the resulting penalty, Frederic Michelak tied the scores although he would play little further part in the proceedings. From the restart, loose ball resulted in Michelak getting his studs caught in the turf under pressure from Andrew Blowers and he hobbled from the park.

Jon Clarke soon came under more pressure as Toulouse targeted the inexperienced full-back. Another penalty against Saints and Jean-Baptiste Ellisalde gave the home team the lead. He repeated the effort just minutes later as Saints were again penalised, this time for Soden coming in from the side. 9-3 to Toulouse although this quickly became 9-6 as Shane slotted the three points following a back-row infringement.

The only try of the game came on 25 minutes.The Toulouse pack were starting to exert their superiority and patient work from 5 metres out ended with Jean-Baptiste Poux emerging from the bottom of a pile of bodies with the score. The conversion was good and Toulouse had a ten point advantage.

As well as the scrum beginning to creak, the Saints' line-out was also coming under increasing pressure. For most of the rest of the half only ferocious defence prevented Toulouse from extending their lead and putting the result beyond doubt before half-time. Ellisalde missed a penalty chance from half-way before Drahm kept hopes alive with another three points just before the break, leaving Saints back within one score.

Toulouse came out all guns blazing after the re-start. Only a knock-on at the line prevented Cedric Heymans from dotting down in the corner. Toulouse continued to pile forward and eventually another Saints infringement gave them the opportunity to restore the ten point lead. Indeed, it was the persistent offending that led to Matt Lord kicking his heels for ten minutes in the sin bin as referee Donal Courtney finally lost patience with Northampton's indiscipline. Down to fourteen men, Saints defending bordered on the heroic. At one point it seemed as though almost half the team were on the deck as they repelled another wave of Toulouse pressure. First Corne Krige needed treatment and then Andrew Blowers went down. And stayed down. The stretcher was called and play was halted for almost ten minutes as the medics did their job. Thankfully, early news is positive. Blowers was stretchered off as a precaution and any injury is hopefully not as serious as first feared. Grant Seeley replaced AB and, with the match just resumed, an attempted Shane drop goal drifted wide.

The lengthy delay seemed to have helped Saints as they tried to engineer a position to chip away at the Toulouse lead. Marc Stcherbina broke the line before off-loading to John Rudd who stayed on his feet well as Saints forayed into the Toulouse 22. Unfortunately, static ball to Seeley ended up with the Green, Black and Gold being forced backwards at a rate of knots and Toulouse cleared their lines.

The punishment Saints were taking began to take it's toll. Krige left the field, obviously unable to shake off the effects of his earlier battering. This forced Wally to the back row with Dan Richmond replacing him at hooker. Grayson replaced Clarke and this forced another reshuffle with Drahm dropping to full-back.

Mark Soden took play forward to half-way as Saints enjoyed some brief defensive respite and Shane converted the three to put the away team back in bonus point territory. 19-12. Indeed, Saints has a good ten minutes at this point, a magnificent snaffle of the ball from Matt Lord led to a Ben Cohen break up field. The Toulouse defence showed that they match what Saints could offer and held firm.

There would would be lengthy injury time but the clock was always against Saints. Toulouse secured victory with a further penalty after Chris Budgen was pinged at the scrum and, despite another drop-goal attempt (from Grayson) Saints came away from France with nothing. A final penalty from Ellisalde in the dying moments and it was all over. Toulouse 25 Northampton 12.

It would have been easy for Saints to be completely blown away by the Toulouse juggernaut but they must take great heart from their display today. Once again they played as a team and stood up to be counted. Toulouse have taken control of this Heineken Cup group but qualification is still a possibility. What is more important is to continue to progress in the post Solomons era. Let's get the potential banana skin of Bedford out of the way and then Saints can get back to the most pressing matter, Premiership survival.

Stockers', "Thoughts from Abroad", match report will appear later......