Toulouse Olympique 84 Keighley Cougars 6

COUGARS were left in a state of shock after they received a thrashing at the hands of League One leaders Toulouse Olympique in the south of France.

The French outfit ran 15 tries past Keighley, prompting head coach Paul March to apologise and say his players would pledge their match fees to fund another away trip for the fans that had made the long journey.

Assistant coach Adam Mitchell said: “On the evening, the little things weren’t going our way and Toulouse were clinical in punishing our mistakes.

“Conceding three quick tries early on means we started trying to chase the game rather than knocking sets out and building pressure.

“From trying to get back into the game with that forced or miracle pass, we gave them a platform and a lot of ball to play with and no team can defend for 80 per cent of the game and expect to get a result.

“For me, they took advantage of our errors and attitude. The preparation was excellent, which makes the performance even more annoying.

“Ash Lindsay suffered a nasty knock to the head and had to be taken to hospital to have a CT scan and Charlie Martin was brought off with a shoulder injury.

“Blow-out scores can happen in sport. It doesn’t make it any easier to take, trust me.

“We're all hurting by the performance but we’ll dust ourselves off and put it right.”

The writing was on the wall for Cougars after they trailed their hosts by 24 points with only a quarter of the game played.

Toulouse broke the deadlock when the ball was shifted across to the left wing where Kuni Minga was on hand to cross.

Full-back Mark Kheirallah scored twice in as many minutes on his way to a four-try haul as he first completed a flowing team move before benefitting from Danny Hulme’s break from the restart.

Sebastien Planas touched down for Olympique’s fourth try of the evening when he powered through Cougars' defensive line, with two more tries following in the next ten minutes.

Clement Boyer scored from Anthony Marion’s assist and Bastien Ader compleed a break from the scrum for his first of the game.

Keighley made sure they weren’t nilled on foreign soil as Matthew Bailey found a way through to score as the half-time hooter sounded.

The second period proved to be a horror show for Keighley as Toulouse ran in a further nine tries to fall ten points short of inflicting Cougars' heaviest recorded defeat.

Ader sealed his brace after great work from Tony Maurel, with Mourad Kirouache crossing three minutes later.

The home side scored once more, almost immediately from the restart, when Kheirallah completed his hat-trick.

Maurel grabbed himself a four-pointer as he picked the ball out of the air to touch down before Johnathan Ford put it on a plate for Kirouache's second.

The onslaught was relentless and they crossed the line once more when a great passage of play saw Hulme add his name to the scoreboard.

Kirouache sent Kheirallah in for his fourth try, with the former’s kick then being touched down by Boyer for the loose forward's second.

Toulouse completed the rout with four minutes left on the clock when Marion claimed his fourth try in three games.