Ashton try eases pain of Toulon dilemma
Former England and Saracens winger Chris Ashton has scored his first try in the colours of his new club Toulon. Okay, it was during a friendly match and he had to travel to the remote Argentine city of Tucuman to do it.
But Ashton, whose transfer was criticised by Saracens, will be glad to get the points to his name in any case.
He was one of four Toulon recruits to score the tries that helped beat Argentina B 36-29, so reversing a 45-24 defeat by the same team in Buenos Aires the week before.
The others were No.8 Raphael Lakafia, full-back Hugo Bonneval, twice, and Argentine flanker Facundo Isa.
The extra points came from the boot of young fly-half Anthony Belleau, but the identity of a permanent successor to Leigh Halfpenny as the principal penalty kicker remains a quandary.
Three seasons have passed since Jonny Wilkinson lit up Toulon for fans who dubbed him their own English knight.
And still they await the emergence of a star to match the all-round mastery of “Sir” Jonny, whose golden left boot guaranteed points galore and trophies.
For a start, new fly-half Jonathan Wisniewski, whose success with penalties for Racing and Grenoble rivalled Wilkinson’s record in recent seasons, broke his right arm after just ten minutes of his debut in Argentina.
Kiwi centre/fly-half Luke McAlister is 34 later this month and kicked just seven Top 14 penalties in his last two seasons with Toulouse.
What is more, he was so disappointing when replacing the injured Wisniewski he did not even make the squad for the victory that followed.
Francois Trinh-Duc has not been a huge success since moving to Toulon, starting just 14 games in an injury-hit season and scoring only five penalties.
He will not be there, either, for the opening game of the season against Pau as one of the French internationals ordered to rest under a new convention between the Federation and League in the hope of producing a better, more dynamic national team.
Trinh-Duc was not fit to play in the ultimate stages of the Top 14 title thrust. Unlike Halfpenny who abandoned Toulon before the final against Clermont to join the Lions in New Zealand.
As Halfpenny was allowed to do under the terms of his contract. His flight, however, was extremely painful for Toulon to accept. Not only because they lost to Clermont but because he was not even involved in the first Lions squad.
President Mourad Boudjellal, understandably for many, decided not to renew his contract, not blaming him but the League for the fixture clash, and having had meagre return on his investment in a player often injured at the outset.
He could not conceal his true feelings on the matter recently in a cross-talk with Bernard Laporte, Federation president and his former manager.
He told him: “We would have beaten Clermont if Halfpenny had been there. We left 15 points behind through our kicking.
“There were good reasons to be angry when you saw him spending his holidays in New Zealand instead of playing a Top 14 final.”
In another interview, Boudjellal pictured Halfpenny relaxing by a swimming pool while his team-mates were involved in battling for the title.
That does not solve, however, the problem of who will kick effectively this season. They will hope Wienieski is a quick healer.
He has kicked 896 points from 62 games in his last three seasons. That sits well alongside the 918 kicked in 67 games by Wilkinson in his last three with Toulon.
One of Boudjellal’s most controversial decisions was to release Aussie flanker Liam Gill, who had played an influential role in driving his team under Richard Cockerill to his club’s fifth Top 14 final in six years.
Gill has joined Lyon under boss Pierre Mignoni, once of Toulon, and has already made his mark in scoring one of their six tries in an eye-popping 40-12 win at Montpellier.
Lyon had already beaten Grenoble 26-17 and are many people’s dark horses to finally make a significant impact on the elite
Friendly, what friendly? That could have been the cry at the pre-season joust between Castres and newly-promoted Agen, who led at the break but were finally beaten 49-26.
They had barely returned from the dressing-room when a mass brawl broke out on the pitch. South African hooker Jody Jenneker, of Castres, and Georgian prop Giorgi Tetrashvili, of Agen, were identified as the most prominent punchers and were given red cards.
Unforgiveable if that rush of blood costs them their places for the opening of the championship.
Among other friendlies on Friday, Stade Francais, eagerly anticipated after the take-over by German billionaire Hans-Peter Wild, lost 24-12 at Perpignan, who just missed out on promotion.
Biarritz, another club desperate to recover elite status, were beaten 41-20 by Bordeaux-Begles.
“We would have beaten Clermont if Halfpenny had been there. We left 15 points behind through our kicking” - Mourad Boudjellal