Star-studded Toulon labored past the Cardiff Blues for their second win in two outings in European Cup action on Sunday, as former two-time champions Munster ran out comfortable victors over pointless Edinburgh.
Leicester also sent out a warning in their clash with Celtic champions Ospreys, running out 39-22 bonus-point winners in a Pool 2 that also includes unbeaten four-time champions Toulouse and Italians Treviso.
In Cardiff, Jonny Wilkinson kicked five penalties and a conversion for a personal haul of 17 points as Toulon ran out 22-14 winners in their Pool 6 match.
Photo: AFP
The French club’s sole try came from erstwhile England flanker Steffon Armitage as a Blues side inspired by Wales trio Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert and Lou Reed battled to keep the home side in the game.
“I feel a lot of pride and a lot of frustration, for 80 minutes we stuck in there and performed superbly well and gave ourselves a platform to potentially win the game,” Cardiff director of rugby Phil Davies said. “But for a bit of inaccuracy and a bit more field position, we could have beaten one of the strongest squads in Europe.”
Halfpenny opened the scoring with a surprise try in just the second minute, making the most of a midfield defensive lapse by Australian Matt Giteau after a nice inside pass from winger Tom James.
Wilkinson made no mistake with a simple penalty after 10 minutes and hit a second soon after to move his side ahead, but the English star pushed a third effort wide, as did Halfpenny with his first effort on the half-hour.
With a stilted Toulon side shying away from much ambition, the home side deserved to retake the lead with a Halfpenny penalty just before the break.
After a turnover, the Blues again put themselves on the front foot, Halfpenny tracking down an isolated Giteau, but slipped as he attempted the resulting penalty.
Wilkinson made no such mistake when next up in front of Cardiff’s posts, but Halfpenny dragged the hosts back into the game with a penalty with 20 minutes to play.
However, the French side immediately fired back, with France scrumhalf Frederic Michalak overseeing a series of midfield attacks and Steffon Armitage eventually crashing over after a break by Giteau, Wilkinson converting.
Going into the final minutes, Halfpenny kicked his third penalty to ensure a nerve-racking finale.
However, a basic ruck infringement handed Toulon the advantage from the restart and Wilkinson booted a simple penalty to wrap up an afternoon the French side made much more difficult for themselves than had seemed warranted.
Leicester left it late against the Ospreys in a belter of a tussle at Welford Road.
England halfback pairing Ben Youngs and Toby Flood each scored a try, along with Manu Tuilagi with his second, in the final nine minutes to give the scoreline an unlikely tilt after a contest that had been close throughout.
A first-minute try from Ryan Jones allied with 17 points from Dan Biggar were simply not enough to undo a Leicester inspired in particular by Flood, who also hit 19 points with the boot including a couple of monster penalties.
“I think Toby gets a lot of unfair criticism,” Leicester coach Richard Cockerill said. “He is a really good player.”
In Munster’s Thomond Park fortress, Edinburgh were put to the sword for the second week running in Pool 1.
After going down 45-0 to Saracens last week, the Scottish team — last year’s semi-finalist — suffered a humiliating 33-0 drubbing to a Munster side that refocused themselves on their traditional strengths up front and around the fringes.
Ian Keatley, deputizing for the injured Ronan O’Gara at flyhalf, kicked 13 points, with scrumhalf Conor Murray, impressive No. 8 Peter O’Mahoney, flanker Sean Dougall and replacement hooker Damien Varley all crossing for tries to ensure the extra point and deepen the concerns of Scottish regional coach Michael Bradley.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but