Cockerill salutes special display
Richard Cockerill hailed his side’s bonus-point win as “the best all-round performance in my time here”.
The Edinburgh coach added: “This win is special, this feeling is special. We were a much more organised team than Toulon, we looked better prepared and more motivated.”
If anything, Cockerill understates the gulf of ambition and application between these two sides. Edinburgh were superior in every facet. They shunted the French scrum backwards, stole their line-out ball, turned Toulon over at the breakdown and won the collisions against a far bigger side.
Toulon may still have a huge wages bill, and a roster which includes former All Black legends, but this rudderless side are a pale imitation of the rugby “galacticos” who won the most recent of their three successive Champions Cup trophies just over three years ago.
But if Toulon looked like a rabble, were made to look so by an Edinburgh side who made good on the promise they showed in Montpellier last week as they racked up their biggest winning margin in Europe for 20 years.
There were standout performances aplenty but the finest came from No8 Viliame Mata. The whole supporting cast was superb but up front Hamish Watson, Ben Toolis and Stuart McInally were particularly relentless while, behind the scrum, Jaco van der Walt, Matt Scott and Darcy Graham were equally inspired.
Edinburgh’s ascendancy began early and had Julian Savea not intercepted what should have been a tryscoring pass from Allan
Dell, then they would have opened their account after just four minutes. As it was, they scored a penalty, followed soon after with a try after
WP Nel made a break and Toolis was driven over from the breakdown.
Edinburgh let huge leads slip against Ulster and Cheetahs earlier this season, so when massive lock Romain Taofifenua forced his way over after 20 minutes on Toulon’s first visit to their 22, nerves started to jangle. It turned out to be a dead cat bounce. A Scott break put Pyrgos in for Edinburgh’s second try and three more penalties from Van der Walt put them 26-7 up at half-time. When Graham made a break straight after the restart and McInally crashed over, the result was no longer in doubt. Toulon scored a breakaway try through Daniel Ikpefan with eight minutes left, but Edinburgh claimed the bonus point when Francois Trinh-Duc threw a pass straight to Chris Dean, who touched down.
Scores Van der Walt pen 3-0; Toolis try 8-0; Van der Walt con 10-0; R Taofifenua try 10-5; Belleau con 10-7; Pyrgos try 15-7; Van der Walt con 17-7; Van der Walt pen 20-7; Van der Walt pen 23-7; Van der Walt pen 26-7; McInally try 31-7; Ikpefan try 31-12; Trinh-Duc con 33-14; Dean try 38-14; Hickey con 40-14. Edinburgh B Kinghorn; D Graham, J Johnstone, M Scott (C Dean 69), D Fife; J van der Walt (S Hickey 65), H Pyrgos (N Fowles 70); A Dell (R Sutherland 57), S McInally (R Ford 61), WP Nel (S Berghan 53), B Toolis, G Gilchrist (J Ritchie 71), M Bradbury (J Ritchie 45), H Watson (L Crosbie 70), B Mata. Toulon H Bonneval; J Tuisova, M Fakitoa, M Bastareaud, J Savea (D Ikpefan 69); A Bellau (F Trinh-Duc 55), A Meric (E Escande 49); F Fresia (X Chocci 40), A Etrillard (B Soury 65), S Taofifenua (E Setiano 45), J Kruger, R Taofifenua (F Vanverberghe 70), S Rebbadj, R Lakafia, F Vanverberghe (J Potgieter 45 (R Gahetau 54). Referee JP Doyle.