Six days ago the Stade Toulousain squad trudged off the field at Matmut Atlantique stadium, their European dreams in tatters.

They were well and truly beaten by Bordeaux in a brutal Investec European Champions Cup semi-final.

Heads bowed and with in an injury list growing by the day, they were faced with a daunting short turnaround before meeting Toulon in Marseille, a massive challenge both physically and mentally.

The Orange Velodrome though is an inspiring place with the mountains peaking through the gaps in the stands it is a wonderful sporting arena.

This annual Top 14 encounter encompasses a rugby festival and the whole area is in rugby party mood along with the sold out 67,000 capacity crowd at the stadium for a post 9pm kick off.

Toulouse injury list resembles a box set of ‘Casualty’. Arnold, Kinghorn, Ramos, Mauvaka, Dupont, Laulala and Banos are all out of action for varying time spans, whilst Bituniyata, Neti, Jack Willis and Juan Cruz Malia were rested due to their recent exertions.

But last night normal service was resumed as their depleted outfit put fifty points on arch rivals Toulon.

Toulon held all the cards in the first half, unfortunately they were yellow and red ones which scuppered any hopes of a victory.

Esteban Abadie received the first carton Jaune after just 8 minutes, followed by Baptiste Serin a minute later after collapsing a maul which resulted in a penalty try for the away side.

Castro-Ferreira and Alainu’uese traded tries for Toulouse and Toulon respectively, whilst Paul Costes received a yellow card for a spear tackle on Baptiste Serin which could easily have been a red.

Serin was the centre of attention again in the 39th minute, when he received his second yellow for interfering with the ball at a ruck in the red zone. Two yellows become a red card, and the talisman scrum-half left his team a man short for the rest of the game.

A scrappy first half ended with a narrow lead for Toulouse (14-13) but the second half was a totally different story.

With an extra man and with the introduction of Meafou and Theo Ntamack, Toulouse scored 36 points to Toulon’s three. Tries rained in from Chocobares, Costes, Lebel, Barassi, and two from Grauo who came on as a replacement for Romain Ntamack after he failed a head injury assessment.

Toulouse are now guaranteed a semi-final berth, which will hopefully give them a bit of time to rest recover and heal their long list of casualties.