Toulon run riot; Willemse binned
Two tries from England international Delon Armitage helped French and European champions Toulon go top of the Top 14 table on Sunday, as they ran Grenoble ragged in a 61-28 thrashing.
Toulon, who outscored Grenoble nine tries to three though the match was tight till the hour mark, have a two point lead over Clermont and Stade Francais after the weekend action – with the former losing their place at the top rung with a surprise defeat at Bayonne and the latter beating Bordeaux-Begles.
"This was revenge for last season when Grenoble beat us both at home and away," said one of Toulon's try-scorers Jean-Charles Orioli.
"They play open rugby so it suited us to play our flowing style."
Toulon ran in three tries in the first-half to Grenoble's one but owing to a poor day with the boot by Argentinean kicker Nicolas Sanchez, getting his first start for the hosts, they led only 17-14 at the break.
Grenoble had gifted Toulon their first try as prop Alexandre Mennini charged down scrumhalf Charl McLeod's poor clearance kick and touched down – Sanchez missing the conversion and then going wide with a penalty.
Jonathan Wisniewski, formerly of Racing-Metro, converted a penalty for Grenoble to make it 5-3, but the visitors did themselves few favours in being reduced to 13 men at one point with centre Migel Hunt and Paul Willemse sin-binned.
Toulon, though, made little of this two-man advantage, scoring just the one try through Bakkies Botha, the conversion again missed by Sanchez, but looked to be at last drawing away when prop Levan Chilchava scored a try a minute before the break – Sanchez for once landing a kick.
However, Grenoble had the last laugh of the half as Alipate Ratini broke through the centre of the Toulon defence and ran in the ball from 30 metres out – Wisniewski went wide to leave the half-time score 17-14 in the hosts' favour.
Toulon came out guns blazing after the break, Sanchez landing a penalty and then Armitage rounding off a fine move orchestrated by Maxime Mermoz – Sanchez sent his conversion wide.
Grenoble, though, refused to lie down and flank Henry Vanderglas gratefully accepted a handling error by Drew Mitchell to run back and touch down under the posts from his halfway line – Wisniewski converted to make it 25-21 with half an hour remaining.
Sanchez eased the pressure a little as he landed a penalty for 28-21 and on the hour mark replacement hooker Orioli went over from close in for their fifth try which the Argentinean converted for 35-21 and once again the offensive bonus point was in their possession.
Further tries by Juan Smith – which was then followed by Grenoble's final try as Hunt produced a superb pass to release Robinson Caire – the outstanding Mermoz, Armitage's second and one virtually on the hooter for Bryan Habana rounded off an ultimately highly satisfying afternoon for Bernard Laporte's team.
"The game was 20 minutes too long for us," said Wisniewski.
"What really killed us was being down to 13 men in the first-half and expending all that energy to stay in the game, as we then had nothing left at the end."
Top 14 results:
Toulon 61 Grenoble 28
Lyon 17 Toulouse 41
Brive 21 Castres 15
La Rochelle 21 Montpellier 15
Stade Francais 39 Bordeaux-Begles 22
Racing Metro 17 Oyonnax 21
Bayonne 24 Clermont 13
Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):
Toulon 10 7 0 3 326 189 5 33
Clermont 10 7 0 3 242 173 3 31
Stade Francais 10 7 0 3 234 224 3 31
Bordeaux 10 6 0 4 296 233 3 27
Montpellier 10 6 0 4 216 176 2 26
Racing-Metro 10 5 0 5 225 218 5 25
Grenoble 10 5 0 5 252 302 4 24
Toulouse 10 5 0 5 227 200 3 23
Bayonne 10 4 0 6 214 206 5 21
La Rochelle 10 4 0 6 220 295 3 19
Brive 10 4 0 6 206 266 2 18
Lyon 10 4 0 6 181 248 1 17
Oyonnax 10 3 0 7 201 226 4 16
Castres 10 3 0 7 202 286 3 15
Source: AFP
