Harlequins crash and burn against Toulon
MATCH REPORT: Harlequins’ hopes of making the Champions Cup knockout stage took a significant blow as Toulon moved to the top of Pool 4 with a commanding victory at Stade Mayol.
The French ran out 33-21 winners with ‘Quins not scoring any points in the first half.
With less than two minutes on the clock, Toulon stormed to Harlequins’ line and Gianmarco Lucchesi muscled over.
Before Baptiste Serin continued his fine form with a cheeky dummy and dart to the line to extend their lead, adding the extras again to his own score.
Toulon then touched down twice in two minutes before the break, with Esteban Abadie barging over from close range before Jiuta Wainiqolo bagged the bonus point score to send them into the sheds 26-0 up.
Having gone into the break 26-0 down, Harlequins came out firing in the second half and Will Porter sliced through to get them on the board.
A few minutes later Jack Walker was on the end of a driving-maul line-out, and with Marcus Smith converting the scoreboard suddenly read 26-14.
But it didn’t take long for RC Toulon to regain control, with Gael Drean carving through after some great hands from the French.
Harlequins got one last try late on through Nick David, but Toulon held out for a 33-21 win to send them into the Round of 16.
Scorers:
For Toulon:
Tries: Lucchesi, Serin, Abadie, Wainiqolo, Drean
Cons: Serin 4
For Harlequins:
Tries: Porter, Walker, David
Cons: Smith 3
Teams
Toulon: 15 Marius Domon, 14 Gaël Drean, 13 Antoine Frisch, 12 Jérémy Sinzelle, 11 Jiuta Wainiqolo, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Baptiste Serin, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Esteban Abadie, 6 Lewis Ludlam, 5 David Ribbans (captain), 4 Matthias Halagahu, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 1 Dany Priso
Replacements: 16 Mickael Ivaldi, 17 Daniel Brennan, 18 Emerick Setiano, 19 Brian Alainu’uese, 20 Swan Rebbadj, 21 Jules Coulon, 22 Ben White, 23 Dan Biggar
Harlequins: 15 Tyrone Green, 14 Nick David, 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Luke Northmore, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Will Porter, 8 Alex Dombrandt (captain), 7 Jack Kenningham, 6 James Chisholm, 5 George Hammond, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Titi Lamositele, 2 Jack Walker, 1 Fin Baxter
Replacements: 16 Sam Riley, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 Chandler Cunningham-South, 20 Will Evans, 21 Danny Care, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Ben Waghorn
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Robbie Jenkinson (Ireland) & Padraic Reidy (Ireland)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)
Source @InvestecChampionsCup
