IT TOOK THEM until the last play of the game, but Toulon wrestled control of Champions Cup Pool 5 away from Wasps with a dramatic 15 – 11 home win.
The decisive score arrived through Drew Mitchell after a draining set of phases built pressure in the Wasps 22. Ma’a Nonu took the option to veer left on his carry and delivered the perfect pass to match Mitchell’s brilliant line.
A 70th minute try from Guy Thompson had put Wasps in position to win the game and upset the reigning champions after they had managed to only hit an Eric Escande penalty after Quade Cooper’s opening score on five minutes.
The late win means, with a round of games still to come next weekend, that Toulon currently occupy top place in Pool 5 and with it a quarter-final berth. And Wasps’ descent to second (with 15 points) means they edge Ulster out of the three top runners-up places.
Next weekend, Wasps host Leinster at the Ricoh Arena, while Toulon travel to Bath hoping the one-point cushion will be enough to keep Wasps at bay.
(Northampton and Glasgow will also influence the runners-up race, they are currently in action in Franklin’s Gardens)
Come on Leinster! We need you to SUFTUM next week
We’ll do our best!
According to some “experts” here Wasps are a very poor side
Ulster really need to look after their own house. A couple of t hrashings by Saracens this season is hardly the form of a team who should be going any further
Bad, what’s the ‘we’ all about??
‘We’ is how people who support a sport refer to their own teams. It is implicitly understood that when somebody says ‘we’ they are not actually talking about themselves, but the collective. For example, I might say ‘we won the last two 6 Nations but under performed in the world cup’, everybody knows I’m not implying that I actually play for Ireland. It’s just a term we use.
What a load of crap!!
No, man, I definitely don’t play for Ireland.
Even though I’m a Leinster fan I’d nearly prefer to see Wasps beat us, Bath to somehow beat Toulon and deny them the losing bonus point, while Ulster notch a bonus point win….sending Ulster & Wasps through..
I’m inclined to agree. It seems perverse to want your team to lose but if Ulster progressed at the expense of Toulon, I could live with it. Sick of Toulon, they’ve under performed in this pool & are still squeezing through. Don’t want to see them as champs again
I’m a platapus
Any chance people in the 42 could do the tables properly-losers do sometimes get losing bonus points!
Will Leinsters match v wasps have a say on weather or not ulster will qualify.