Heineken Champions Cup: Ulster 23-30 Toulouse (agg 49-50) - Defending champions claim comeback win

Romain Ntamack inspired Toulouse by scoring a try and creating another in five first half minutes

Antoine Dupont's 75th minute try kept Toulouse's defence of their Champions Cup title alive as they advanced to the quarter-finals with a dramatic one-point aggregate win over Ulster.

Tom O'Toole's 65th minute red card proved a major blow for Ulster, who led by six after the first leg.

Thomas Ramos contributed 20 points as the French champions won 30-23 on the night in an action-packed contest.

They will meet Munster in the last eight.

On a night in which the aggregate lead changed hands three times, Ulster are left to ponder a home defeat that will hurt immensely particularly given that they came into the contest having defeated Toulouse in their own back garden a week ago.

Had the province won they would have enjoyed a home quarter-final, but instead they are faced with the difficult reality that their first defeat in Europe this season had brought their campaign to an abrupt end.

Ntamack leads Toulouse charge

After last weekend's win in Toulouse, Ulster skipper Iain Henderson noted it would not take much for his side's six-point advantage to be erased given the French champions firepower, and so it proved.

After 27 minutes the visitors had turned their deficit into a four-point aggregate lead thanks largely to two moments of brilliance from Romain Ntamack in the middle of an action packed opening half.

Ulster nearly suffered the same fate that Toulouse did last week in being permanently reduced to 14 men early in the contest, but Robert Baloucoune's badly mistimed aerial tackle on Anthony Jelonch was only punished with a yellow card in the third minute as the Toulouse forward landed on his back.

The numbers were brought back to parity three minutes later when Dimitri Delibes was sent to the bin for a dangerous tip-tackle on Ethan McIlroy.

The Ulster wing - who missed last week's first leg - then scored the opening try after Ramos' ill-judged decision to take a quick line-out five metres from his own line gifted Ulster possession deep in Toulouse territory.

The score gave the province a 10-point lead in the tie that was wiped out in five minutes as first Ntamack's break sent Ramos beneath the posts before the 2022 Grand Slam-winning fly-half picked off John Cooney's pass to run the length of the pitch and give his side the aggregate lead.

Ethan McIlroy's sensational second try put Ulster back in front on aggregate just before half-time

The Kingspan crowd remained vocal throughout a night that was arguably Ulster's biggest home European game since the quarter-final against Saracens in 2014, and raised the noise levels with their team now chasing the game.

The province responded in style as Billy Burns used an advantage to send a cross-field kick to the corner where McIlroy produced a stunning one-handed catch and an equally impressive grounding to put his side back in the driving seat.

The tension was palpable throughout the second half, as Ramos and Cooney's impressive kicking kept both sides well within sight of the number required to advance to the last eight.

The pivotal moment came 15 minutes from time when O'Toole, who made an immediate impact in the scrum upon his introduction, was sent back to the bench for a high hit on Jelonch which, after multiple viewings, left referee Matthew Carley with little choice but to show a red card.

Tom O'Toole's red card gave Toulouse a brilliant opportunity to complete their comeback

The sending off did not immediately swing the tie towards Toulouse, as Cooney knocked over another penalty three minutes later to move Ulster into a six-point aggregate lead and galvanise the crowd once more with the finish line just 12 minutes away.

It nearly got better for the hosts as an almighty kick chase led by Baloucoune saw Toulouse pegged back right on their own line, but Dupont produced a typically sublime box-kick under pressure.

The visitors bided their time and moved through the phases as they worked their way upfield before Dupont spotted the gap he was after in a tiring defence to blitz through and deliver what would prove to be the killer blow.

Ulster: Lowry, Baloucoune; Hume, McCloskey; McIlroy; Burns, Cooney; Warwick, Herring, Moore; O'Connor, Henderson (capt), Rea, Timoney, Vermeulen.

Replacements: Roberts, O'Sullivan, O'Toole, Treadwell, Murphy, Doak, Marshall, Lyttle.

Toulouse: Ramos; Delibes; Nanai-Williams, Ahki; Lebel; Ntamack, Dupont (capt); Neti, Mauvaka, Faumuina; Ro Arnold, Ri Arnold; Elstadt, Tolofua, Jelonch.

Replacements: Cramont, Ainu'u, Aldegheri, Meafou, Flament, Miquel, Germain, Tauzin.