Toulon see off Perpignan to ease the pressure on coach Collazo
Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal has sworn he will stick by team boss Patrice Collazo even if his former European champions go down into Division Two at the end of this season. And they are just one place above the drop zone despite a modest home win over bottom club Perpignan
Beating a club, who had lost all eight previous games, 26-16 hardly qualifies as a triumph on a ground deserted by up to a third of Toulon fans. And yet such is the plight of a side stricken by fumbling fingers and frail mentality Toulon will accept the end of five defeats in a row with much relief.
Boudjellal, of course, has hired and fired coaches so quickly in the desperate search for renewed success many feel he is somewhat to blame for the confused state of players performing well short of their reputations.
He said: “It is my job to pull the team out of this bad run but I am sure of one thing. We will not stay where we are.
“I have every confidence in Collazo. I would go into Division Two with him, but we are going to try not to do that, even so.”
Boudjellal is busy in the transfer market in the hope of signing major players like All-Black lock Sam Whitelock, Saracens hooker Christopher-Eric Tolofua and Bordeaux-Begles scrum-half Baptiste Serin among others.
He needs Toulon to shoot up the Top 14 to convince them they are worth joining, but will not do so on this showing.
In fact, they were trailing at the break to a team who had lost Fijian centre Adrea Cocagi to a yellow card without conceding a point in the meantime.
Kiwi winger Julien Savea, replaced at centre by Collazo, made the break with a try after the restart and the boot of fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc did the rest.
Toulon suffered a serious blow towards the close when former Perpignan prop Sebastian Taofifenua, who had joined them to play with his brother Romain, was carried off on a stretcher with an ankle injury.
Former Toulon star Steffon Armitage, the English flanker, made his long-awaited comeback for Pau after more than eight months out of action.
Armitage, who had torn his Achilles tendon during a European Challenge defeat at Cardiff last April, started on the bench at Castres.
Within a few minutes of his secondhalf entry, he scored a try. Sadly for him, though, he had suffered agonies on the bench while watching his teammates getting slaughtered.
Castres bounced back from a heavy defeat at Clermont to lead 30-3 at the break with tries from winger Armand Batlle, South African centre Robert Ebersohn, winger Martin Laveau and a penalty try.
Laveau, 21, a new signing from Bayonne, looks a discovery. This was his third try after scoring at Gloucester and Toulon. Castres No.8 Alex Toulon put the bonus point beyond any doubt with a final try in the second half to make it 37-10.
Gaetan Germain had the beating of leaders Clermont at his feet for Grenoble with a last-minute penalty to kick for victory. Agonisingly for him, the ball struck a post and stayed out for a 27-27 draw between teams 18 points apart in the Top 14. Germain, playing his 150th match, had scored more than 1600 points in a career noted for the accuracy of his kicking.
He said: “It would have done us so much good in our fight against relegation if it had gone over. It is really hard.”
Germain did score 17 points but will long regret the 11 he failed to convert. Especially the last three.
Clermont were shorn of five stars on French international duty but still felt able to start Scotland captain and scrum-half Greig Laidlaw on the bench.Any team fielding Kiwi fullback Isaia ‘Magic’ Toeava and Fijian winger Alivereti Raka, soon to be qualified for France, are bound to be dangerous.
Toeva created Clermont’s opening try for Aussie lock Sitaleki Timani and Raka added a second with a mystifying change of direction.
It seemed business as usual for Clermont when sub Fijian flanker Peceli
“I have every confidence in Collazo. I would go into Division Two with him, but we are going to try not to do that”
Mourad Boudjellal
Yato scored a third for a seven-point lead towards the close.
But Grenoble, who had scored the only first-half try through Georgian prop Beka Gigashvili, struck back with an equalising try by Tongan centre Alaska Taufa.
Only for Germain, who had already scored five penalties and a conversion, to miss out when it counted most.
Much to the relief no doubt of relegation rivals Agen who rescued a bonus point in their 33-29 defeat at La Rochelle. That was down to a try three minutes from time by U20 World Cupwinning full-back Clement Laporte, who will join either Stade Francais or Lyon next season.
Those teams meet today with Stade requiring a bonus-enhanced win to join Clermont on points at the top.
Racing will have Scottish fly-half Finn Russell back from a week training with his country in their line-up at Montpellier. He has the best goal-kicking percentage in the Top 14 so far.