Pre-match stunt goes wrong as Sale slump

As the great entertainers, it is rare that Toulouse are upstaged by the pre-match pageantry but it is not every day a paratrooper attempting to land on the pitch gets snagged on the stadium roof and suspended in midair for half an hour.

- Gerard Meagher

As it was, the paratrooper in question was rescued by the fire brigade and you suspect pre-match protocols may be changed in the future before Toulouse dug in to beat a dogged Sale side, who return home with heads held high.

The Sharks' defeat, though, capped a miserable weekend for the Premiership clubs and for the first time since 2019 there will be just one representative Northampton in the last eight. As far as England's British & Irish Lions hopefuls are concerned, it has not been a great weekend either and Andy Farrell will anxiously await news of Tom Curry's wrist injury even if Sale's director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, is hopeful the flanker has avoided a fracture.

The incident with the paratrooper happened shortly before kick-off. Two paratroopers had already landed successfully on the pitch when a third, Captain Yannick Trouillet, approaching from the north-east corner of the stadium, was caught on the edge of the roof. He was supposed to be delivering the match ball but it soon became clear that he was stuck, dangling 30 metres above the ground.