Toulon beat Bath 45-34 on Sunday, but the visitors claimed the bonus point that put them top of the tightly-balanced Investec Champions Cup Pool 2.
Northampton collected a bonus point as they thrashed the Bulls 50-5 to join Bordeaux Begles at the head of Pool 4 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 3.
In Pool 2, 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 coach 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.”
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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 Premiership 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.
Wing George Hendy scored a hat-trick as last year’s beaten finalists Northampton notched up eight tries in a one-sided thrashing of a Vodacom Bulls side, which rested several key players.
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It was raining tries at Ashton Gate too 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.
Flyhalf Tom Jordan converted eight of Bristol’s nine tries.
Earlier, Quins bounced back from their defeat at Leinster last week to put them in Pool 3 contention behind the Irish province and the 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.
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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.”
– AFP
Photo: Manuel Blondeau/INPHO
The post Toulon hold off Bath; Bristol, Quins win big appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Toulon beat Bath 45-34 on Sunday, but the visitors claimed the bonus point that put them top of the tightly-balanced Investec Champions Cup Pool 2.
The post Toulon hold off Bath; Bristol, Quins win big appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
