Slade's Late Miss Haunts Exeter as 14-Man Toulouse Survive 43-40 Champions Cup Thriller

A classic in the making at the Stadium de Toulouse

Ninety-nine seconds had barely elapsed when Zack Wimbush struck for the first of his three tries, and from that moment the opening-round Pool 2 tie between Stade Toulousain and Exeter Chiefs never stopped moving. When the final whistle finally sounded on an 83-point Investec Champions Cup classic, Toulouse had survived 43-40 — but only just, and only after Henry Slade dragged an 82nd-minute penalty wide that would have completed a remarkable comeback and banked a draw for the 2020 champions.

It was the defining image of an extraordinary afternoon in the south of France: Slade, one of the finest kickers in the English game, staring at the uprights as a win for the record six-time winners slipped — and then didn't. The Chiefs left with two bonus points and a story they will dine out on for years. Toulouse left with five points, a clean record at the Stadium de Toulouse stretching back to 2022, and a captain in Antoine Dupont who knew exactly how close it had come.

"When you see how the game panned out, at half-time we would have signed up for a victory," Dupont told reporters afterwards, per AFP. Of Slade's late miss, he added: "It's the tragic part of the sport, the role of a kicker, he missed the most important kick."

Sixty-five minutes of 14 against 15

Toulouse's escape is all the more remarkable for the circumstances. Prop Rodrigue Neti was sent off after just 15 minutes for a high tackle on Exeter back-rower Ross Vintcent, leaving the Top 14 leaders a man down for the remaining 65 minutes. It could have been worse: winger Teddy Thomas's yellow card for an accidental knock-on meant Toulouse finished the first half playing with 13 men.

Rob Baxter's side sensed blood. Full-back Sam Harris was himself sin-binned during a frenetic seven-minute spell that also produced a penalty try for the hosts, but once Wimbush's second score restored the numerical advantage, Exeter built a lead that looked match-winning. Jack Yeandle and Stephen Varney crossed in quick succession — Varney, the Italy scrum-half, enjoying a superb afternoon — and the Chiefs turned around 26-24 ahead at the break, the first side to lead Toulouse at home in this competition since 2022.

The lead was no fluke, either. Toulouse were already depleted before kick-off: first-choice locks Emmanuel Meafou and Thibaud Flament were missing through injury, alongside hooker Julien Marchand and full-back Thomas Ramos. Exeter's pack smelled opportunity and took it.

Wimbush the hat-trick hero, Remue the match-winner

The second half was a pure shootout. Will Butt's try, converted by Slade, extended Exeter's advantage after the restart, and with a quarter of an hour left the Chiefs led 40-38 — a first English victory of the opening weekend in sight, after Gloucester's draw with Bordeaux-Begles and defeats for Sale, Saracens, Bath and Bristol on Saturday.

But champions find a way. Belgian full-back Matias Remue, whose first try had kept Toulouse in touch, struck for a second time with 12 minutes to play to edge the hosts ahead. Romain Ntamack, superb in the absence of the usual supporting cast, had scored twice himself and converted both scores in quick succession during the second-half fightback, while Ange Capuozzo and Joshua Brennan also crossed for the French side.

Wimbush's hat-trick — completed when Slade's conversion put Exeter 40-38 ahead — was one of the great individual away performances in the competition's recent history. The England wing crossed in the first minute, the 22nd, and late on, running in six tries of his own team's six; the Chiefs' six scores would have won almost any other match on the continent. Instead, Exeter must settle for the consolation of two losing bonus points — small reward, but on a bruising weekend for the Gallagher Prem, some reward at all.

An emotional weekend

There was a sombre undertone to the opening weekend. A minute's silence was held before kick-off at the Stadium de Toulouse, and at every game across the competition, in memory of the Lions' lock Hyron Andrews, who was found in cardiac arrest at the team hotel the day before his side's game at La Rochelle on Saturday. It was a reminder, amid the fireworks, of the fragility beneath the sport's pageantry.

Earlier on Sunday, Top 14 high-flyers Pau had beaten Leicester 41-17, with Portugal centre Rodrigo Marta crossing twice, and Prem champions Northampton later ended the English wait for a victory by holding off Cardiff 28-12 at Franklin's Gardens. But no result on the opening weekend — perhaps in the entire pool stage — will match the drama of Toulouse and Exeter.

The Chiefs travel home wounded but believing. Slade will replay that penalty for weeks; Wimbush, Varney and the rest have given every side in Pool 2 a blueprint for hurting a Toulouse team that is magnificent but mortal. For Dupont's men, the five points are everything. The manner of it was pure theatre — and the Champions Cup is all the richer for it.