David Skrela kicked six penalties to inspire defending champions Toulouse to a 18-16 victory over 2004 champions Wasps in their opening European Cup clash on Sunday.
Skrela landed the sixth of his kicks eight minutes from time to give the hosts a two-point lead in a match that was played in heavy rain and yielded just the one try.
David Lemi grabbed it for the English side in the second half to give them the lead and hope of recording their fourth win in six meetings with their French opponents.
Photo: AFP
Toulouse manager Guy Noves said he was relieved to have got the points.
“I think that we proved that being patient paid off against a Wasps side who today deserved to win as much as we did,” Noves said. “Our calmness in the last 15 minutes permitted us to get back and score three precious points, whereas Wasps had the same opportunity, but were not able to capitalize on it.”
Skrela’s fifth penalty, a massive effort from the halfway-line gave the hosts some breathing space at 15-9, but Wasps, who beat Toulouse in a thrilling 2004 European Cup final, hit back immediately with a try.
Photo: AFP
A great chip ahead by Dave Walder — who had scored all their points prior to that with two penalties and a drop-goal — was allowed to bounce by Toulouse fullback Clement Poitrenaud and it gave Lemi the time to hack it ahead and apply enough pressure to it to persuade the video referee to award it.
The decision infuriated both the players and the crowd, who jeered referee George Clancy — Walder paid no heed to them and converted to make it 16-15.
Toulouse cleared their heads and retook the lead eight minutes from the final whistle as the peerless Skrela once again converted a penalty from distance.
Wasps had a final opportunity to win the match, but Walder for once was found wanting as his penalty drifted wide of the left post.
France scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili kicked four second-half penalties to give last season’s beaten European Cup finalists Biarritz a 12-11 victory over English outfit Bath.
Yachvili — who landed five penalties in their semi-final meeting five years ago that also ended in victory for Biarritz — turned the match around after hosts Bath had gone 8-0 up through a try and a penalty by Michael Claassens and Olly Barkley.
Bath — without injured England captain Lewis Moody — took their eight-point advantage into the break after a try by South African scrumhalf Claassens and a penalty by former England flyhalf Barkley.
The French side would have been much closer after 40 minutes, but for a superb try-saving tackle by Bath fullback Nick Abendanon on Zimbabwean-born US international winger Takudza Ngwenya.
However, Yachvili converted two penalties in the first 10 minutes of the second half to make it 8-6 as the two-time European Cup finalists turned on the pressure.
The visitors thought they had scored a try in the 53rd minute when No. 8 Raphael Lakafia touched down, but he was judged by the video referee to have already been tackled and a penalty was awarded against him.
Yachvili, though, put Biarritz into the lead in the 55th minute with his third successful kick from three attempts.
Barkley restored Bath’s lead, but the French side got a huge boost in the 70th minute when not only was Bath prop Davie Wilson sin-binned, but Yachvili landed a penalty to give them a 12-11 lead.
Bath head coach Steve Meehan was left baffled that his side had not tried to land a drop-goal to take the points and instead, a man down, tried to score a try, especially as Barkley was ideally positioned to attempt one on two occasions.
“I can’t fully explain it,” Meehan said. “There are a load of guys standing around equally bewildered as to why we didn’t try for one. The thing is we had the opportunities to go for a drop-goal and we should have put it between the posts.”
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