| Toulon: (24) 29 |
| Tries: Wainiqolo, Rabut, Devaux, Cordin Cons: Biggar 3 Pens: Biggar |
| Bath: (0) 7 |
| Tries: Doughty Cons: Francis |
Dan Biggar helped set up two tries and kicked nine points as the Wales fly-half helped new club Toulon beat Bath 29-7 in the European Challenge Cup.
First-half tries for Jiuta Wainiqolo, Maelan Rabut and Bruce Devaux were just reward for Toulon as they dominated the forward battles on their home turf.
Biggar put Gervais Cordin in for a fourth Toulon try after the break.
Tom Doughty pulled a try back with nine minutes left after Toulon had Baptiste Serin sin-binned.
The loss, Bath’s second in successive Challenge Cup matches, leaves their hopes of making the knockout stages hanging in the balance with just the losing bonus point from last week’s 22-19 home defeat by Glasgow to show for their efforts.
Bath struggled to contain Toulon’s power early on as Biggar, who joined from Northampton last month, landed an eighth-minute penalty, before having a hand in Wainiqolo’s try seven minutes later as the Fijian winger dived over in the left corner after a line-out caused by a Bath infringement.
Toulon scrum-half Jules Danglot did superbly to beat Joe Cokanasiga to a grubber kick and save a try for the French side after 21 minutes, and four minutes later his deft chip over Bath’s line put in Rabut for the second score.
It got worse for the visitors shortly before the break when Devaux went over from close range after an excellent break by flanker Raphael Lakafia.
Bath held out for 15 minutes after the restart before Biggar’s wonderful long pass cut out three of his team-mates to find Cordin on the right wing for the bonus-point try.
In the final 20 minutes Bath had a good spell of possession and territory, and with Serin sin-binned for the last 10 minutes after a deliberate knock-on, Bath took their chance as Doughty was mauled over.
Toulon: Salles; Cordin, Sinzelle, Rabut, Wainiqolo; Biggar, Danglot; Devaux, Etrillard, Brookes, Rebbadj, Warion, Coupon, Lakafia, Parisse (capt)
Replacements: Baubigny, Priso, Gigashvili, Ollivon, Alainu’uese, Serin, West, Luc
Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh, Butt; Francis, B Spencer (capt); Boyce, Dunn, Rae, Attwood, Lee-Warner, Ellis, Reid, De Carpentier
Replacements: Doughty, Morozov, Jonker, W Spencer, Bayliss, Green, Bailey, Hill
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Italy)
