Former Sydney Roosters full back Mark Kheirallah scored 24 points as star-studded Toulouse edged into the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup fourth round with a 32-14 win against Wath Brow Hornets in Cumbria.
But Wath Brow, of the NCL Premier Division, emerged with huge credit as they pushed one of the favourites for promotion from League One this season all the way at the Hornets Nest.
On a heavy pitch, it was Wath Brow who took a shock early lead as Charlie Tomlinson and Karl Dixon combined to send full back Luke Davison over on ten minutes.
But Toulouse, who had a healthy smattering of international and NRL experience amongst their ranks, launched a quick response, Kheirallah striding through a hole in the Hornets' defence to level the scores, before he added the extras to make it 6-4 to the visitors.
Undeterred, Wath Brow soon hit back as Karl Dixon went over in the same corner as team-mate Davison after Kheirallah fumbled a kick.
However, after Cole-Walker Taylor's second missed kick, the visitors replied within minutes as Cook Islands international Jonathan Ford stepped his way over the line.
The French outfit were beginning to warm to the arduous conditions and made it back-to-back tries just before half time; Toulouse veteran Kuni Minga beating off the attentions of a number of defenders to go in out wide, making it 16-8 at the break.
Toulouse then picked up where they left off after the interval as Kheirallah, who made his NRL debut for Sydney Roosters against Canberra Raiders in 2011, raced 40 metres downfield after a Daniel Hulme break to notch his second try of the day.
He added the extras to make it 20-8 with just over half an hour to play, but Wath Brow struck back five minutes later through Dixon, the full back squeezing in at the corner for his second four-pointer of the match.
Fran King added the two to leave the NCL outfit just six points down with the final quarter approaching.
But, despite a battling effort from the hosts, that was as good as it got for the enthusiastic home crowd in the second half as the French full-timers added two more tries late on to seal their progress into the fourth round.
The first of those came on 70 minutes, Kheirallah burrowing over for his hat-trick try after a slick passing move.
He converted and the game was all-but over as a contest four minutes later as the impressive Australian rumbled over for his fourth try of the day, before adding his fourth goal of the afternoon to round off the scoring.
Ladbrokes Man of the Match: James Dixon (Wath Brow Hornets)
