Toulouse will now face London Irish at Twickenham later this month and while Young felt the scoreline was rough justice, he has tipped the French giants to fight for the European title once more.

Young said: “I don’t think the result reflected the game but it did show that we were second best. We were in the game for more than an hour but to be honest, the physical intensity and tempo they brought to the game really told in the final twenty minutes.

"We started to tire when they stepped up and we can have few complaints about the result. I think we could have lost to the eventual champions.

“For anyone doubting Toulouse, they proved they are still a force in Europe with that performance. They had control, they were clinical and kept the scoreboard ticking over. They have a great balance between their forwards and backs.”

It was a welcome tonic for Toulouse Coach Guy Noves who spent Friday night in hospital with concussion after he was knocked off his bicycle in a collision with a car in the city.

Noves said: “I’m very proud of the players and it’s great to come off the pitch at the end of a game, feeling that we played a game we can be proud of. Although we are very pleased with the result, this is European rugby and it’s all or nothing. We have a semi-final to prepare for and if we lose that, then we finish the season with nothing.

“The players really stepped up from our French Championship game against Biarritz last week and we played some very good rugby.

“Although the backs scored the tries, coaches Yannick Bru and Philippe Rouge-Thomas have done enormous amounts of work with the pack and if we hadn’t benefited from the work they have done on the scrum, we would have spent most of the time on the back foot.”