Toulouse - 100 and not out yet

The triple champions surrendered control of Pool 5 when they crashed to a 33-26 home Round 5 defeat at the hands of Glasgow Warriors, only their seventh home tournament defeat in their 14th season at Europe's top table.

Now they travel to The Recreation Ground to meet table toppers Bath Rugby with coach Guy Noves, who has been with the club every single step of the way to their century of Heineken Cup matches, aware they cannot afford any slip up against the 1998 champions.

Bath are just a single point clear at the top after a hard-fought 15-12 win at Newport Gwent Dragons and well aware they have been thrown a priceless lifeline by Glasgow as the Scottish team made their first win on French soil a truly memorable occasion.

"We were looking for the bonus point - and we got one - but not the one we were looking for," said Noves.
"We were still riding on the wave of our success in the domestic league and played as though it was a Top 14 game. But Europe is a step up and you have to play at a higher level to get the wins."

And no-one knows better than Noves just what it takes to be successful in Europe.

Their 99 matches so far have produced 70 wins - not to mention the little matter of seeing them appear in eight Heineken Cup semi-finals en route to a record five finals.

But now it is crunch time with Noves admitting: "We have a week to sort things out or beating Bath will be a 'Mission Impossible.'

"We know that we are still in it but we have to win at Bath and, if we don't raise our game for Sunday, it's going to be all over for us.

"We submitted to Glasgow in every part of the game and that is just not acceptable. They played a very high tempo game and it stopped us playing our game in the first half.

"Last weekend was a catastrophe and lessons will be learned from what Glasgow did. It is not so much the loss which angers me so much as the manner."

That shock defeat brought an abrupt end to their 15-match winning run of 11 games in the French Championship and four in the Heineken Cup - the longest winning sequence in French club history.

Nevertheless, they remain the form French team and they have certainly got their season back on track after losing two of their opening four matches, 16-11 at Montpellier and then at ASM Clermont Auvergne.

But since that 16-6 defeat at Clermont in Round 4 on 13 September, 2008, the reigning French champions have swept all domestic opposition before them - including a 26-13 triumph against Stade Français Paris at a packed Stade de France.

After 15 of the championship's 26 rounds, they are three points clear of Stade Français Paris and have the mighty impressive points difference of +183, largely down to the 37 tries they have scored.

But now it is all about Heineken Cup survival - ironically in their 100th tournament match.