Ashton picks way through the chaos to grab 2 tries
Chris Ashton scored two tries to bring his own total to six in his first seven games for Toulon in the Top 14, the ideal start to the French career he launched with a move from double European champions Saracens.
But it is a whole new ball game from the clinical precision he left behind to the chaotic dramas he has discovered in Toulon. And the 41-25 win over bottom club Brive was just the most recent example of their eccentric, topsy-turvy performances.
They include one-point Euro wins over Scarlets after leading 18-0 and Italians Treviso with a penalty three minutes into overtime.
Ashton will long remember his first try early in the second half for a 70-metre burst through a Brive outfit reduced to only TWELVE men.
Amazingly, Brive had trudged into the break with only ELEVEN as four players were directed to the sin bin, three of them in a crazy cluster in the final moments.
That Ashton try was Toulon’s fourth and appeared to guarantee a bonus point against a team fielding the leakiest defence around on the road. Plus the worst attack anywhere.
Not for a Toulon side, though, who have not yet revealed the staying power to finish what they started.
And, in the end, after Ashton had scored their sixth try, they were forced to cling on to the bonus for five worrying minutes with just 14 men.
That is because Brive, who had only scored two tries all season, snatched three in 14 minutes through Georgian prop Karlen Asieshvili, sub Portuguese scrumhalf Samuel Marques and full-back Gaetan Germain.
Ashton, exiled on his wing, barely touched the ball at all before the interval with Toulon ahead through a penalty try and one from centre Anthony Belleau.
His tries sandwiched two more from full-back Hugo Bonneval and flanker Raphael Lakafia.
Kiwi legend Ma’a Nonu, who replaced injured Belleau for the second half, condemned Toulon fans to late nail-biting with a yellow card for a shoulder barge.
By now, though, they are growing accustomed to such discomfort as Ashton continues to grapple with his culture shock.
Ashton was not the only former England international to make an impact yesterday. Delon Armitage was another and it may even be that he is on the verge of adding to the trophies he won with Toulon.
He scored one of seven tries that eventually allowed Lyon to cement their position as shock Top 14 leaders with a 52-18 win over Oyonnax.
Armitage keeps a low profile these days after enraging rugby fans with his apparent arrogance while winning with Toulon.
He is no less effective for that under the control of former Toulon coach Pierre Mignoni, tipped himself for an influential future.
Unlike Toulon, Lyon, predicted in this column to contest the title this season by Clermont champion Nick Abendanon, finish games strongly.
And never more so than here when, dominated in the first half, they returned from the break to score five tries. That is after scoring two earlier through winger Alexis Palisson and scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud. Oyonnax got within four points when the massacre began to take shape. Firstly through Kiwi winger Toby Arnold and then by Couilloud, himself, and sub prop Stephane Clement.
It remained only for Couilloud, 20, to create a try for Armitage before sub prop Dylan Cretin, also 20, rounded off Lyon’s exploit to show youth is having its say.
Lyon, who have covered the lengthy absence of injured English flanker Carl Fearns by the signing of Kiwi Toa Halafihi, have great experience, too.
Witness the seven conversions and penalty registered by former Toulouse star Lionel Beauxis while the evergreen Frederic Michalak played a cameo role towards the close.
Louis Picamoles, the back-row star who left hometown club Montpellier to join Northampton, is making a formidable success of his return.
In fact, even though Lyon are still ahead of them in the title race, Montpellier still remain the bookies’ favourites. Thanks largely to men like Picamoles, who sealed a 22-16 win at Pau with a third try.
Thanks, too, to Nemani Nadolo, the fearsome Fijian, who set his team on their way to victory with an early try, another coming from Aussie centre Joe Tomane before the interval.
Pau’s only response, apart from three penalties by Kiwi full-back Tom Taylor, was an all-Fijian try created by Watisoni Votu for Jale Vatubua.
Racing have had so many disciplinary scandals off the pitch it is hard to keep count. Now the tendency has spread to the pitch with two red cards.
But the dismissals of Fiji winger Virimi Vakatawa for a dangerous tackle after just half an hour did not stop them beating Bordeaux-Begles 29-13.
He was joined by team-mate Manuel Carizza and Bordeaux’s Sebastien Taofifenua, who were sent off towards the close for a bout of fisticuffs.
Vakatawa had created a try for winger Teddy Thomas before his exclusion that threatens his place for France against the All-Blacks on November 11.
Substitute hooker Camille Chat was also on the mark with a double and Racing’s courageous win was rounded off by Tongan lock Edwin Maka.