Toulouse stayed on course for a quarter-final berth with a 30-10 win over Glasgow at Hughenden.

Glasgow made a promising start as lock Joe Beardshaw stole the Toulouse line-out on their own 22 line.

Then scrum-half Sam Pinder darted through a fringe gap after a pick-up by skipper Jonny Petrie – but the move collapsed when his pass to Gareth Maclure was too low.

Maclure was quickly back in the spotlight when he freed Dan Parks, whose perfectly-weighted chip sparked panic in the French back ranks.

They were forced to give away a scrum five metres out, but Glasgow could not capitalise on their great position. And they paid dearly as Toulouse snatched control with their first raid of the game.

Vincent Clerc easily brushed aside Calvin Howarth’s feeble challenge, leaving a clear path to the line for for full-back Nicholas Jeanjean.

Parks replied instantly with a penalty from 40 metres, but the visitors were soon back on the offensive.

Cedric Heymans powered over, but dropped the ball before he could properly ground it.

The reprieve for Glasgow was only temporary, however, as Gregor Lamboley galloped in under the crossbar following fine work by Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, who kicked his second conversion.

Even worse was to come for the Warriors when centre Florian Fritz exploited another defensive bungle to cruise home from 35 metres.

Glasgow refused to buckle completely in the build-up to the interval and they earned a glimmer of hope by creating a superb try.

Maclure inflicted the initial damage with a mazy run before Beardshaw finished in style, giving Parks a simple conversion.

Rattled Toulouse stepped up the pace after the restart and they eased their jitters with a close-range penalty by Elissalde.

That was the cue for the Frenchmen to switch to full power and they pinned Glasgow back in their own danger zone for 10 minutes.

Somehow the home defence held firm in the face of constant pressure and the frustrations of the visitors was underlined when Elissalde opted for another penalty shot at goal instead of going for the vital fourth try.

They grabbed a touchdown five minutes later – during Glasgow’s first raid of the half.

From a turnover five metres from their own line, the ball was spun out to Clerc, who made light of the quagmire to power in from 60 metres.