Toulon edge out Van Graan's Bath as Bears and Quins run riot
SUNDAY WRAP: Toulon held off determined Bath resistance to win 45-34 on Sunday, but the visitors claimed the bonus point that put them top of the tightly-balanced Champions Cup Pool Two.
Northampton collected a bonus point as they thrashed the Bulls 50-5 to join Bordeaux-Begles at the head of Pool Four on a perfect 10 points from two games, while Bristol are only a point back after they trounced Pau 61-12 in a nine-try romp.
Harlequins went one better by running in 10 tries as they hammered Bayonne 68-14 in Pool Three.
In Pool Two, Bath are a single point ahead of the other five teams after Castres shut out visiting Edinburgh 33-0 earlier in the day and Munster beat Gloucester on Saturday.
“It was a massive battle between two good sides. It came down to the last few minutes and they scored at the end,” Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan told Premier Sports.
“There was one point in it with 20 minutes to go and it’s a fantastic place to play rugby.”
In a tight game of swinging momentum, Toulon and Bath seemed to be taking it in turns to score tries.
Brian Alainu’uese, Nacho Brex, Gael Drean, Lewis Ludlam, and Teddy Baubigny, with the final move of the game, touched down for the hosts.
Ted Hill, Santiago Carreras, Arthur Green and Louie Hennessey struck for the Prem champions to earn them a crucial bonus point, but Baubigny’s last-gasp score denied them a second one.
Mateo Garcia kicked 20 points for Toulon while Finn Russell booted four conversions and two penalties for the visitors.
“It was a test for us, we did well,” said Toulon captain Charles Ollivon.
It was raining tries at Ashton Gate as Bristol ripped through the Pau defence with ruthless efficiency.
Prop Ellis Genge opened the scoring in the first minute before Benjamin Grondona, Kieran Marmion, Kalaveti Ravouvou and Gabriel Oghre added more first-half scores to effectively end the contest before the interval.
After the break, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Joe Batley, Aidan Boshoff and Santiago Grondona piled on the misery for Pau, who scored two tries themselves through Fabien Brau-Boirie.
Fly-half Tom Jordan converted eight of Bristol’s nine tries.
‘A lot of guts’
Earlier, Quins bounced back from their defeat at Leinster last week to put them in Pool Three contention behind the Irish province and Stormers.
Flyhalf Marcus Smith sparkled in the London sunshine as his kicks put Caden Murley and Kieran Treadwell in for the first two tries to start the rout.
Props Fin Baxter and Pedro Delgado gave the hosts a bonus point by half-time.
In the second period, scrumhalf Will Porter touched down twice while Treadwell scored his second try.
Smith added one try of his own, as did replacements Sam Riley and Jamie Benson, with Lucas Paulos and Tom Spring crossing the whitewash for the overmatched Basques, who are bottom of the group alongside Leicester.
Smith converted all but the last of his team’s 10 tries.
“It’s obviously nice to come back home after that shift last week where the lads played with a lot of guts,” said Smith.
“We talked about getting back here in front of our friends and family and putting on a show.”
On Saturday, Glasgow fought back from a 21-point half-time deficit to topple record six-time Champions Cup winners Toulouse 28-21 to ruin Antoine Dupont’s first start for more than eight months.
See below for Sunday’s scores and scorers!
Harlequins 68-14 Bayonne
The scorers:
For Harlequins:
Tries: Murley, Treadwell 2, Baxter, Delgado, Porter 2, Riley 2, Benson
Cons: Smith 9
For Bayonne:
Tries: Paulos, Spring
Cons: Spring 2
Teams:
Harlequins: 15 Nick David, 14 Cassius Cleaves, 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Luke Northmore, 11 Cadan Murley (captain), 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Will Porter, 8 Zach Carr, 7 Will Evans, 6 Jack Kenningham, 5 Stephan Lewies, 4 Guido Petti Pagadizábal, 3 Pedro Delgado, 2 Jack Walker, 1 Fin Baxter.
Replacements: 16 Sam Riley, 17 Boris Wenger, 18 Will Hobson, 19 Kieran Treadwell, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Lucas Friday, 22 Jamie Benson, 23 Ben Waghorn.
Bayonne: 15 Yohan Orabe, 14 Jonah Thompson, 13 Sireli Maqala, 12 Federico Mori, 11 Victor Hannoun, 10 Tom Spring, 9 Baptiste Tilloles, 8 Manex Ariceta, 7 Esteban Capilla, 6 Alexandre Fischer (captain), 5 Lucas Paulos, 4 Alvaro Garcia Iandolino, 3 Emerick Setiano, 2 Lucas Martin, 1 Ignacio Calles.
Replacements: 16 Vincent Giudicelli, 17 Swan Cormenier, 18 Marco Fepulea’i, 19 Baptiste Heguy, 20 Raphael Marchesin, 21 Noa Traversier, 22 Herschel Jantjies, 23 Pyrénées Boyle-Tiatia.
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Andrew Cole (Ireland), Jonathan Erskin (Ireland)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)
Castres 33-0 Edinburgh
The scorers:
For Castres:
Tries: Ambadiang, Zarantonello, Ardron, Vargas, Botitu
Cons: Popelin 4
For Edinburgh: None
Teams:
Castres: 15 Geoffrey Palis, 14 Christian Ambadiang, 13 Vilimoni Botitu, 12 Jack Goodhue, 11 Adam Vargas, 10 Pierre Popelin, 9 Jeremy Fernandez, 8 Abraham Papalii, 7 Tyler Ardron, 6 Baptiste Delaporte (captain), 5 Tom Staniforth, 4 Gauthier Maravat, 3 Aurelien Azar, 2 Loris Zarantonello, 1 Quentin Walcker.
Replacements: 16 Teddy Durand-Pradere, 17 Lois Guerois-Galisson, 18 Nicolas Corato, 19 Leone Nakarawa, 20 Baptiste Cope, 21 Gauthier Doubrere, 22 Enzo Herve, 23 Vuate Karawalevu.
Edinburgh: 15 Jack Brown, 14 Ross McCann, 13 Matt Currie, 12 Piers O’Conor, 11 Lewis Wells, 10 Cammy Scott, 9 Ben Vellacott, 8 Tom Dodd, 7 Freddy Douglas, 6 Liam McConnell, 5 Glen Young, 4 Callum Hunter-Hill, 3 Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, 2 Harri Morris, 1 Boan Venter.
Replacements: 16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Mikey Jones, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Connor Boyle, 20 Hamish Watson, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 James Lang, 23 Wes Goosen.
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Clara Munarini (Italy), Alberto Favaro (Italy)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (Italy)
Toulon 45-34 Bath
The scorers:
For Toulon:
Tries: Alainu’uese, Brex, Drean, Ludlam, Baubigny
Cons: Garcia 4
Pens: Garcia 4
For Bath:
Tries: Hill, Carreras, Green, Hennessey
Cons: Russell 4
Pens: Russell 2
Teams:
Toulon: 15 Mathis Ferte, 14 Gaël Drean, 13 Nacho Brex, 12 Jérémy Sinzelle, 11 Setariki Tuicuvu, 10 Matéo Garcia, 9 Baptiste Serin, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Charles Ollivon (captain), 6 Lewis Ludlam, 5 Brian Alainu’uese, 4 Swan Rebbadj, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros.
Replacements: 16 Teddy Baubigny, 17 Leo Ametlla, 18 Dany Priso, 19 Corentin Mezou, 20 Esteban Abadie, 21 Ben White, 22 Mathieu Smaili, 23 Joe Quere Karaba.
Bath: 15 Santi Carreras, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Max Ojomoh, 12 Cameron Redpath, 11 Henry Arundell, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Tom Carr-Smith, 8 Alfie Barbeary, 7 Sam Underhill, 6 Ted Hill, 5 Ross Molony, 4 Quinn Roux, 3 Billy Sela, 2 Tom Dunn, 1 Beno Obano.
Replacements: 16 Kepu Tuipulotu, 17 Francois van Wyk, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Charlie Ewels, 20 Miles Reid, 21 Neil le Roux, 22 Louie Hennessey, 23 Arthur Green.
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
Assistant referees: Saba Abulashvili (Georgia), Saba Makharadze (Georgia)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Bristol Bears 61-12 Pau
The scorers:
For Bristol Bears:
Tries: Genge, B Grondona, Marmion, Ravouvou, Oghre, Janse van Rensburg, Batley, Boshoff, S Grondona
Cons: Jordan 8
For Pau:
Tries: Brau-Boirie 2
Con: Mondinat
Teams:
Bristol Bears: 15 Louis Rees-Zammit, 14 Kalaveti Ravouvou, 13 Benhard Janse van Rensburg, 12 James Williams, 11 Aidan Boshoff, 10 Tom Jordan, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 Fitz Harding (captain), 7 Benjamin Grondona, 6 Joe Owen, 5 Joe Batley, 4 Pedro Rubiolo, 3 Lovejoy Chawatama, 2 Gabriel Oghre, 1 Ellis Genge.
Replacements: 16 Harry Thacker, 17 Jake Woolmore, 18 Max Lahiff, 19 Santiago Grondona, 20 Luka Ivanishvili, 21 Sam Wolstenholme, 22 Sam Worsley, 23 Josh Carrington.
Pau: 15 Aymeric Luc, 14 Aaron Grandidier Nkanang, 13 Fabien Brau-Boirie, 12 Quentin Valentino, 11 Clement Laporte, 10 Clément Mondinat, 9 Dan Robson, 8 Carwyn Tuipulotu, 7 Clément Paul, 6 Joel Kpoku, 5 Mickael Capelli, 4 Thomas Jolmes, 3 Siate Tokolahi, 2 Lucas Rey (captain), 1 Daniel Bibi Biziwu.
Replacements: 16 Youri Delhommel, 17 Hugo Parrou, 18 Jon Zabala Arrieta, 19 Remi Picquette, 20 Loic Credoz, 21 Thomas Souverbie, 22 Nathan Decron, 23 Thomas Carol.
Referee: Eoghan Cross (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Robbie Jenkinson (Ireland), Padraic Reidy (Ireland)
TMO: Leo Colgan (Ireland)
