On the lawn of Kingsholm in Gloucester, Toulon went for a third victory in three days of the Challenge Cup by dominating Bath (23-35), validating their place in the round of 16 of the competition.
Toulon did not suffer from the 24 hour delay. Originally scheduled for this Saturday, the duel between the Varois and Bath had to be postponed and relocated to Gloucester due to an impassable lawn. The players of Franck Azéma and Pierre Mignoni immediately took the leadpushing the English defense to fault on the first action and collecting a penalty try on which Dave Attwood received a yellow card for having collapsed the maul.
While Orlando Bailey quickly scored the first three points for Bath, the RCT continued its momentum with Thomas Salles who went to flatten the second try of his formation after an acceleration from Maëlan Rabut. Five minutes from the break, the English replied with Matt Gallagher who found the fault in the Var defense. Just before returning to the locker room, Dan Biggar passed a penalty to give Toulon a seven-point lead.
⏱80′ | 23-35 𝗩𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗢𝗜𝗥𝗥𝗘 ✅
Toulon overcomes this beautiful team dd Bath and returns to the Rade with the offensive bonus 🔥#BATRCT pic.twitter.com/sZ98SOyHn9
— RCT – RC Toulon (@RCTofficiel) January 15, 2023
Toulon went to snatch the bonus
The start of the second period saw the two teams neutralize each other. Shortly before the hour mark, Dan Biggar passed a second penalty before Cheslin Kolbe signaled. The South African winger followed a game at the foot of Jules Danglot to recover the ball and go to the test. Bath, touched but not sunk, regained momentum to score twice in two minutes. After Matt Gallaghere’s double, it was Ted Hill who brought his team back to five lengths.
A sequence that Dan Biggar cut short by adding three points on penalty before seeing his vis-à-vis Piers Francis improve a fault by the forwards of the RCT. On the last action, Adrien Warion forced the passage to offer his formation the offensive bonus. With this third victory in as many days (23-35), Toulon joins the leading pack in a Pool A which sees five teams achieve the full card and the other five remain on three defeats in three games.
