Quins pay full price for costly errors by Monye

Harlequins 19 Toulouse 23

Harlequins were flattened by Toulouse's second-half onslaught but the quality of their rugby in defeat helped them go some way towards restoring their tarnished reputation in Europe. They failed to defend a 14-point half-time lead and the England winger Ugo Monye proved both hero and villain in the first Heineken Cup tie at this ground since last season's ill-starred quarter-final defeat by Leinster and the scandal over the use of fake blood that followed it.

Monye scored two brilliant individual tries but he also aided Toulouse' stirring fightback with some untidy defensive work under pressure that contributed to two tries.

"We didn't look after the ball well enough and left the door ajar. Lesser teams might not have squeezed through but Toulouse are a different proposition," Monye said. "You cannot give them openings but we gave two soft tries away. We did ourselves damage rather than [having] damage inflicted by the opposition."

Having lost their opening game to Cardiff last week, Quins have their work cut out if they are to qualify from Pool Five. Until Toulouse scored their two tries in a decisive four minute period at the start of the second half, however, it looked like Quins would celebrate another famous home win over French opposition, to go with last season's thriller against Stade Français.

Quins played some sublime attacking rugby at times but Toulouse, who looked shapeless and hesitant in the first half, played with more patience and precision after the break. Two missed conversions from Nick Evans ultimately proved costly for Quins; Toulouse used three kickers in the second half to gnaw away at the deficit.

The return of Monye, Danny Care and Nick Easter, who were all forced to sit out the Cardiff defeat under the rest requirements for members of England's elite squad, gave Quins better shape and direction. Care snapped and sniped from scrum-half and Easter marshalled a brave forward effort that reduced Toulouse to a pale shadow of the side who dismantled Sale last week.

Both sides suffered in a physical start to the game and three players had to be replaced in the first 12 minutes, including Harlequins' captain, Will Skinner, who had started the match with a heavily strapped left ankle. Yannick Nyanga, the Toulouse blindside, left the field on a stretcher.

Evans nudged Quins ahead in that ferocious period with a penalty from close to halfway and he kicked a second midway through the half, while Toulouse were settling down a re-shaped pack. After a tentative first quarter, Monye brought the game to life when he came off his wing, popped up in midfield and used his strength and acceleration to shred Toulouse's defence. Evans struck a post with his conversion attempt but then found the target with a third penalty which gave Quins a handy lead. It might have become a match-winning one had Care not stumbled as he followed up his own chip ahead. The scrum-half had the line at his mercy but he lost his footing as he dived for the ball, which bobbled over the dead-ball line.

It proved a turning point in the game, as Toulouse were a transformed side in the second half, having been rallied by an on-pitch pep talk from their head coach, Guy Noves.

Within eight minutes they were level. Harlequins failed to deal with Maxime Médard's chip ahead, Monye fumbled as he tried to gather and the wing Yves Donguy collected the rebound to stroll over under the posts.

Monye then conceded a five-metre line-out when he punched the ball into touch to deny Vincent Clerc a try, only for Toulouse to shunt the South African back-rower Shaun Sowerby over from the resulting driving maul.

Jean-Baptiste-Elissalde kicked his second conversion before Quins managed to lift the siege with a sustained attack that ended with Monye latching on to Mike Brown's accurate grubber kick for his second try. Evans' failure to add the conversion, however, kept the door ajar for Toulouse.

Elissalde trimmed the deficit with a 58th-minute penalty and Frédéric Michalak put his side in front for the first time in the match within seconds of replacing Elissalde at scrum-half. The replacement centre Florian Fritz sealed the win with a monstrous penalty kick, from just inside his own half, three minutes from time.

Harlequins M Brown (R Clegg, 76); D Strettle, G Tiesi, T Masson, U Monye (G Lowe, 76); N Evans, D Care; C Jones, T Fuga, M Lambert (J Andress, 64), L Stevenson (S O'Connor, 68), J Evans, C Robshaw, N Easter, W Skinner (capt; T Guest, 9).

Toulouse M Médard; V Clerc, Y David (F Fritz, 54), Y Jauzion, Y Donguy; J-B Elissalde (F Michalak, 61), B Kelleher; J-B Poux (D Human, 2), W Servat (A Vernet Basualdo, 78), B Lecouls (C Johnston, 54), R Millo-Chluski (G Lamboley, 67) P Albecete, Y Nyanga (J Bouilhou, 11), S Sowerby (L Picamoles, 54), T Dusautoir (capt).

Referee: A Rolland (Ireland).