Ashton left relieved as Toulon make up for his blunder
Heartbreak for Bath, relief for Chris Ashton. A contest that was lacking in consistent, high-end quality was redeemed by the staggering quantity of drama in the final quarter.
The chief protagonist was Ashton. It had to be. Playing in his first match against English opposition since joining Toulon from Saracens in the sumbeens. mer, he has hit the ground running in the Top 14 with 13 tries in 11 games.
This was his stage – his chance to prove Eddie Jones was wrong to ignore his claims at Saracens – in the battle of the undefeated teams in Pool Five. His performance will be remembered, but for all the wrong reasons after he committed the type of mistake that will sit alongside Willie le Roux’s drop over the line last season or Clement Poitrenaud’s dithering in the 2004 final in the European Cup’s hall of shame.
With Toulon leading 14-13 after 60 minutes, Anthony Watson threaded a wonderful kick into the corner. For reasons best known to himself, Josua Tuisova decided to take it quickly, throwing to Ashton, who had been minding his own business in the in-goal area.
Panicking, Ashton raced sideways past his own posts before attempting a clearance that he sliced horribly, acting more as a cross-field kick for Jonathan Joseph to gather and score with ease.
Bath, for whom hooker Tom Dunn and flanker Matt Garvey were outstanding, could have killed the game after that.
With numbers out wide, replacement scrum-half Kahn Fotuali’i wound up for a long pass that was picked off by Facundo Isa, who started a length-ofthe-field break that ended with Ashton being held just short by Paul Grant.
Redemption would have to wait, as Toulon pounded at the Bath line for phase after phase using their heavy artillery. Eventually they employed a degree of artistry as replacement Anthony Belleau ran on to his own grubber-kick for what proved to be the match-winning score with four minutes left.
Still Bath could have won it. Fly-half Rhys Priestland, who failed to find touch after turning over Toulon on their try-line, kicked past the dead-ball line with a penalty with one minute remaining. Somehow he was granted a third opportunity when Bath won a penalty from the subsequent scrum.
This time he played it safe. Bath looked to have got the maul going, but the referee said play. From there they copied Toulon’s tactic of smashing it up, when they may have been better off giving the likes of Watson, Joseph and Aled Brew an opportunity to run at their suspect opposite numbers, before they were eventually turned over.
“We are gutted,” Garvey, the captain, said. “We didn’t come here for a losing bonus point, we came here for the four points. Speaking to Jonathan Joseph, we felt with the way we played we deserved to win.”
There were a lot of could-have-- Referee Andrew Brace’s interpretation of the breakdown hurt Bath, while he missed two key incidents in the first half that could have turned the game. “When the games are so tight it comes down to one or two little things like the breakdown,” said Todd Blackadder, Bath’s director of rugby.
“To me it was inconsistent and the penalty count was inconsistent as well. For Toulon’s first try, what would have hurt to have had a look? The technology is there, let’s use it.”
Bath were also incensed by the knee injury No 8 Taulupe Faletau suffered when he was cleared out of a ruck by Mathieu Bastareaud.
Toulon are no longer the force they once were and a victory for Bath would have virtually propelled them into the quarter-finals.
They got off to a good start when Ben Tapuai was able to hack down field and
force a penalty off Semi Radradra that Priestland kicked. Soon after Bath had the try their start merited, although once again it relied upon Toulon deficiencies. From a line-out, play was spread quickly, both Priestland and Joseph firing fizzing flat passes until the ball reached Brew stationed on the left wing.
Tuisova seemed to have him covered, but somehow waved him past on his outside. Ashton’s attempt at a tackle was not much better and Brew offloaded to Watson (right), who strolled under the posts.
That was the cue for the game to open up, even if both sides lacked precision. Twice Toulon won penalties that they opted to kick to the corner only to come away with nothing. Bath also failed to capitalise upon breaks by Matt Banahan and Joseph, the second following a delightful chip by Priestland. It was inevitable that Toulon would rouse themselves from their stupor, although they needed a helping hand from the referee.
Having sucked in enough defenders in the right-hand corner, Toulon went wide, where both Joseph and Banahan came haring out from the line to counter the overlap.
The latter was blocked off by prop Florian Fresia to allow Nonu a stroll under the posts.
Blackadder can feel even more aggrieved that Brace chose to interpret Francois Trinh-Duc’s knock-on inside his own 22 as accidental, rather than deliberate, which could have resulted in a yellow card.
Bath still profited, winning a scrum penalty that left them 13-7 ahead at the interval. Toulon reverted to type in the second half, tightening up their game plan to lower their capacity for self-inflicted wounds.
With Bath conceding penalty after penalty in defence, scrum-half Chris Cook was eventually sin-binned and Toulon immediately took advantage as scrum-half Alby Mathewson broke from the short side of a scrum to give them the lead for the first time in the match. There would be more twists and turns.