Toulon see off Zebre, Connacht too good for Newcastle

CHALLENGE CUP WRAP: Toulon battled to a 24-21 win against a stubborn Zebre Parma side in their opening EPCR Challenge Cup game at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi on Saturday.

A try double from Gael Drean, plus a Sergio Parisse score and a penalty try, were enough for Toulon, who were beaten in last season’s final.

Zebre were worthy opponents and threatened to snatch an unlikely win as they crossed through Luca Bigi, Enrico Lucchin and Kobus van Wyk.

Toulon took the lead with a quarter of an hour played through the penalty try, but Zebre hit back seven minutes later through prop Bigi.

The sides looked set to go into the break level, but after Zebre prop Matteo Nocera was sin-binned on 36 minutes, Toulon reclaimed the lead through No.8 Parisse.

Wing Drean extended Toulon’s advantage with a try shortly after the restart, but centre Lucchin went over for a Zebre response, flyhalf Tiff Eden’s second conversion of the evening reducing the deficit to three points.

And the hosts sprung a surprise on 59 minutes as wing Van Wyk dotted down to hand them the lead, Eden converting again to move his side three points clear.

But there would be no shock success for the United Rugby Championship (URC) strugglers as Drean crossed again on 69 minutes and snatched victory for Toulon.

Connacht’s power off the bench made the difference as they ended up beating a battling Newcastle Falcons side 22-8 in the EPCR Challenge Cup in Galway on Saturday.

Paul Boyle got the hosts off to the perfect start with a try on three minutes, but Newcastle worked their way back into it, looking menacing with ball in hand and taking every possible opportunity to get speedster Adam Radwan into the game.

It paid off on 25 minutes, as a cross-field kick was caught and offloaded by Radwan to Nathan Earle, who touched down in the corner to put the away side 8-7 up.

But Connacht responded brilliantly with a score from Adam Byrne that will live long in the memory, ensuring that they went into half-time with a six-point lead.

The home side extended their lead with a penalty from David Hawkshaw as both teams largely cancelled each other out in the third quarter before Connacht made a raft of changes and took charge up front with some eye-catching set pieces.

And the Irish province made sure of a hard-earned victory with a try in the final five minutes, Conor Fitzgerald expertly picking out Diarmuid Kilgallen, who leapt acrobatically to take the cross-field kick and make the final score 22-8.

Meanwhile, Cardiff laid down a statement of intent as they go in search of their third EPCR Challenge Cup title, with a resounding 36-0 win against CA Brive side in their opening game at Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday.

The home side got off to a flying start with a close-range try from Kristian Dacey after a kick to the corner, before adding a second try in mirror-image fashion, with Dacey the scorer once again.

And when Jarrod Evans broke through before floating a delightful pass out to Josh Adams for the finish, the away side looked beaten before half-time.

It only took Cardiff seven minutes to secure the bonus point after the break, Lloyd Williams going over on his 250th appearance to widen the gap to 24-0 after a wild Brive attempt to keep the ball in play.

After a long period of pressure near the Brive line, Teddy Williams crashed over as the gulf in power between the two packs showed once again.

And the win was rounded off by a simple finish in one corner for substitute Mason Grady, and one in the opposite corner from wing Theo Cabango.

Cardiff travel to Kingston Park to face Newcastle Falcons next, while Brive will be looking to banish the memories of what was a horrible afternoon, with a home match against Connacht Rugby.

The scores and scorers:

Zebre 21-24 Toulon

The scorers:

For Zebre:
Tries: Bigi, Lucchin, Van Wyk
Cons: Eden 3

For Toulon:
Tries: Penalty Try, Parisse, Drean 2
Con: Biggar

Teams

Zebre: 15 Lorenzo Pani, 14 Kobus van Wyk, 13 Erich Cronjé, 12 Enrico Lucchin, 11 Latu Latunipulu, 10 Tiff Eden, 9 Gonzalo Garcia, 8 Matt Kvesic, 7 MJ Pelser, 6 Taina Fox-Matamua, 5 Andrea Zambonin, 4 David Sisi (captain), 3 Matteo Nocera, 2 Luca Bigi , 1 Luca Rizzoli.
Replacements: 16 Marco Manfredi, 17 Juan Pitinari, 18 Riccardo Genovese, 19 Jan Uys, 20 Guido Volpi, 21 Ratko Jelic, 22 Geronimo Prisciantelli, 23 Franco Smith.

Toulon: 15 Aymeric Luc, 14 Gervais Cordin, 13 Jérémy Sinzelle, 12 Mathieu Smaili, 11 Gael Drean, 10 Dan Biggar, 9 Jules Danglot, 8 Sergio Parisse (captain), 7 Raphael Lakafia, 6 Jules Coulon, 5 Adrien Warion, 4 Matthias Halagahu, 3 Emerick Setiano, 2 Teddy Baubigny, 1 Bruce Devaux.
Replacements: 16 Pierre Damond, 17 Fanguna Apea Tau Junior Fifita, 18 Kieran Brookes, 19 Sitaleki Timani, 20 Mattéo Le Corvec, 21 Benoit Paillaugue, 22 Maëlan Rabut, 23 Mathieu Tanguy.

Referee: Adam Jones
Assistant referees: Elgan Williams, Mark Butcher
TMO: Ian Davies

Connacht 22-8 Newcastle

The scorers:

For Connacht:
Tries: Boyle, Byrne, Kilgallen
Cons: Hawkshaw 2
Pen: Hawkshaw

For Newcastle:
Try: Earle
Pen: Schoeman

Teams

Connacht: 15 Tiernan O’Halloran, 14 Adam Byrne, 13 Tom Daly, 12 Cathal Forde, 11 Diarmuid Kilgallen, 10 David Hawkshaw, 9 Caolin Blade, 8 Paul Boyle, 7 Shamus Hurley-Langton, 6 Jarrad Butler (captain), 5 Niall Murray, 4 Josh Murphy, 3 Jack Aungier, 2 Dylan Tierney Martin, 1 Peter Dooley.
Replacements: 16 Shane Delahunt, 17 Denis Buckley, 18 Sam Illo, 19 Leva Fifita, 20 Oisín McCormack, 21 Colm Reilly, 22 Conor Fitzgerald, 23 Tom Farrell.

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Alex Tait, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Tom Penny (c), 11 Nathan Earle, 10 Tian Schoeman, 9 Sam Stuart, 8 Callum Chick, 7 Tom Marshall, 6 Matty Dalton, 5 Sebastian De Chaves, 4 Greg Peterson, 3 Mark Tampin, 2 Jamie Blamire, 1 Conrad Cade.
Replacements: 16 Charlie Maddison, 17 Adam Brocklebank, 18 Richard Palframan, 19 Josh Peters, 20 Marcus Tiffen, 21 Josh Barton, 22 Josh Thomas, 23 Ewan Greenlaw.

Referee: Luc Ramos
Assistant referees: Adrien Descottes, Thomas Chereque
TMO: Denis Grenouillet

Cardiff: 41-0 Brive

The scorers:

For Cardiff:
Tries: Dacey 2, Adams, Ll Williams, Teddy Williams, Grady, Cabango
Cons: Evans 3

For Brive: None

Teams

Cardiff: 15 Ben Thomas, 14 Josh Adams, 13 Rey Lee-Lo, 12 Max Llewellyn, 11 Theo Cabango, 10 Jarrod Evans, 9 Lloyd Williams, 8 James Ratti, 7 Thomas Young, 6 Josh Turnbull (captain), 5 Seb Davies, 4 Lopeti Timani, 3 Dmitri Arhip, 2 Kristian Dacey, 1 Rhys Carre.
Replacements: 16 Kirby Myhill, 17 Brad Thyer, 18 Dillon Lewis, 19 Teddy Williams, 20 Taulupe Faletau, 21 Tomos Williams, 22 Rhys Priestland, 23 Mason Grady.

Brive: 15 Mathis Ferté, 14 Valentin Tirefort, 13 Wesley Douglas, 12 Thomas Laranjeira (captain), 11 Joris Jurand, 10 Enzo Herve, 9 Enzo Sanga, 8 Abraham Papali’i, 7 Joeli Matalaweru, 6 Matthieu Voisin, 5 Andrés Zafra Tarazona, 4 Renger van Eerten, 3 Tietie Tuimauga, 2 Lucas Da Silva, 1 Wesley Tapueluelu.
Replacements: 16 Florian Dufour, 17 Hayden Thompson-Stringer, 18 Francisco Coria Marchetti, 19 Tevita Ratuva, 20 Noé Bedou, 21 Paul Abadie, 22 Tanguy Lacoste, 23 Tom Danovaro.

Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi
Assistant referees: Alex Frasson, Framco Rosella
TMO: Stefano Rochini

Source: @ChallengeCup_