Toulouse Olympique 22-20 St Helens: Paul Marcon's late try shocks Saints

Paul Marcon's late try consigned St Helens to defeat in Toulouse

Paul Marcon's dramatic late try stunned reigning champions St Helens and gave newcomers Toulouse their first ever Super League victory.

The France winger touched down three minutes from time to snatch the win.

Saints conceded in the opening seconds of the game before fighting back to lead 18-12.

But Chris Hankinson's converted try and Marcon's late effort saw Toulouse over the line and handed the league leaders their first defeat this season.

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The league's bottom side rocked Saints from the kick-off, winning the ball back and moving it swiftly out to the left, where Scotland international Matty Russell touched down in the corner.

Hankinson added the extras and the visitors looked rattled, although they appeared to have restored order as Jonny Lomax put Tommy Makinson in for his eighth try of the season, before Jack Welsby's quick hands enabled Josh Simm to make it 8-6.

But the French side were back in front when former Saint Dom Peyroux chased Tony Gigot's grubber kick and took advantage of some static defending to cross the line.

Saints were unable to wrest back the advantage until the 35th minute, with Mark Percival and Makinson combining to set up a try for Welsby, and Lewis Dodd's conversion secured a narrow two-point lead at the interval.

However, Toulouse continued to gain plenty of territory after the turnaround and it needed a superb try-saving tackle by Welsby to halt Olly Ashall-Bott in his tracks.

Almost immediately, Jake Wingfield found Dan Norman on the inside and he burst through to score his first Saints try, prompting a wave of pressure from the champions.

Yet Toulouse weathered the storm and Lucas Albert set up Hankinson to narrow the gap to two points, before Marcon went over in the corner to ensure a shock result and end St Helens' 100% record.

Toulouse coach Sylvain Houles:

"St Helens are the best in rugby league in Europe but the boys have been working so hard for weeks and you could feel it coming.

"We could sense a belief and we know exactly what is needed in this competition and they pulled it out of the bag.

"It's historic, it's our first win in Super League and it is ironic that it was St Helens. It could only be Toulouse!

"It is up to us now, it is in our hands to stay in Super League."

St Helens coach Kristian Woolf:

"It's a difficult place to come to and their supporters really get behind them. We'll have to learn some lessons from this quickly.

"It wasn't something we saw coming, we trained quite well in the week running up to this.

"There were a couple of times where we got on top and we looked like we had an opportunity to run away with it but they found a real energy to stop us and they found some good tries as well.

"They deserve all the credit, it's a great win for them and their club but we've got to look at what happened and learn from it."

Toulouse: Ashall-Bott, Russell, Hankinson, Armitage, Marcon, Gigot, Albert, Bretherton, Marion, Sangare, Dixon, Peyroux, Puech

Interchanges: Pelissier, Hansen, Garbutt, Paulo

St Helens: Welsby, Simm, Hurrell, Percival, Makinson, Lomax, Dodd, Lees, Lussick, Paasi, Sironen, Knowles, McCarthy-Scarsbrook

Interchanges: Roby, Amor, Wingfield, Norman

Referee: James Child

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