Pelous pounces to kill off the Scottish revival

Edinburgh 9 Toulouse 3

Having ventured three steps forward, with a first-ever clean sweep of an autumn series for the national side, Scottish rugby took a second step in a backward direction yesterday. After both Edinburgh and Glasgow came to grief in the quarter-finals of the Celtic League last weekend, Edinburgh fell to defeat in the Heineken Cup at Meadowbank Stadium.

It wasn't quite a déjà vu job for the Gunners, as Edinburgh like to be known. Against Cardiff seven days previously, Todd Blackadder and his side shot themselves in the foot, snatching a 26-22 defeat from the jaws of a 19-3 lead. Yesterday they simply ran out of gas after leading 6-3 at the interval.

Toulouse ran in three second-half tries, the third deep in injury time by their captain Fabien Pelous. The inaugural club champions of Europe now have a four-point lead over Edinburgh at the halfway stage in Pool Five and, with a trip to France for the return match next Sunday, the Gunners look to have fired a blank in their quest for a quarter-final place.

They fired a blank from their first scoring opportunity of the afternoon, though Brendan Laney succeeded with his second penalty attempt, giving Edinburgh a 3-0 lead after six minutes. With Toulouse boasting the most tackles made in the first two rounds of the competition and Edinburgh recording the least tackles missed, openings were always likely to be at a premium but the hosts worked one in the 12th minute. With Simon Webster free on the overlap wide on the right, though, Scott Murray's pass was too long for the former Northampton wing.

To Edinburgh's credit, they kept Toulouse out of the home 22 until the 22nd minute and, even then, they had more than sufficient cover to keep out Emile Ntamack in the right corner. It was not exactly Grandstand stuff for the nationwide television audience but it was a gripping enough contest for the aficionado. Edinburgh, with the greater possession and territory, edged ahead on metaphorical points and on actual ones as the first-half progressed, Laney's second successful penalty stretching their lead to 6-0 on the half-hour.

Their cause was hardly helped, though, when Allan Jacobsen threw a stray punch that landed him in the sin-bin five minutes before the interval. Punishment was not long in coming. Edinburgh's cover defence strayed offside in snuffing out an Ntamack break and Yann Delaigue converted the penalty that put French points on the board in first-half injury time.

Nine minutes into the second half it was all square, Delaigue dropping a goal from 20m, and three minutes later Edinburgh were playing catch-up. Frédéric Michalak scampered eagerly through the barn-door Edinburgh left gapingly ajar twixt pack and half-backs at a line-out on the left and Delaigue added the conversion. Toulouse were 13-6 in front and, though Laney's third penalty conversion reduced the gap to four points just before the hour, the team dubbed "the Real Madrid of European rugby" by Edinburgh team manager Ian Rankin showed all of their nous thereafter, keeping the Gunners well out of scoring range.

They were rewarded for their pressure with 17 points in the last 10 minutes, Vincent Clerc scoring in the left corner, Delaigue converting, Michalak landing a penalty and then Pelous mauling over from a line-out. Delaigue converted again, giving him a four-out-of-four place-kicking record for the day. For Edinburgh, sadly, for a second week in a row, it was only half a job done – and another fully demoralising defeat.

Edinburgh: D Lee; S Webster, B Laney, A Dickson (C Joiner, 77), C Paterson; D Hodge (T Phillip, 77), M Blair; A Jacobsen, D Hall, C Smith (J Brannigan, 59), N Hines, S Murray (G Perrett, 72), T Blackadder (capt; A Dall, 72), M Leslie, S Taylor.

Toulouse: C Poitrenaud; E Ntamack (N Jeanjean, 79), C Desbrosse (Y Jauzion, 73), X Garbajosa, V Clerc; Y Dalaigue, F Michalak; B Lecouls, Y Bru, J-B Poux (C Soulette, 33), D Gerard, F Pelous (capt), T Brennan (J Bouilhou, 61), C Labit, I Maka (G Lamboley, 76).

Referee: D McHugh (Ireland).