Toulon celebrate winning the 2015 European Rugby Champions Cup
Australian wing Drew Mitchell’s brilliant late try ensured Toulon became the 1st club to win 3 successive Premier European titles as they beat French rivals Clermont 24 / 18 in a thrilling European Rugby Champions Cup final at Twickenham.
Clermont were 11 / 3 up midway through the 1st half, yet turned round at the break with Toulon leading 16 / 11 – after Leigh Halfpenny’s remorseless boot and a converted try by Mathieu Bastareaud saw the champions into the lead.
But Nick Abendanon’s converted try for Clermont just after the hour cut Toulon’s lead to a point only, only for Drew Mitchell to have the last word.
Toulon and Wales fullback Halfpenny punished Clermont’s indiscipline with 4 penalties and also kicked a conversion in a 14-point haul.
Clermont had a setback shortly before the match kicked off, when Australian flyhalf Brock James suffered a thigh injury in the warm-up and was ruled out.
But such is their strength in depth, his place was taken by France international Camille Lopez.
Toulon, though, kicked off with 4 World Cup-winners in their side in Bryan Habana, Bakkies Botha, Juan Smith and Ali Williams.
Up front, however, Clermont’s initial dominance at the scrum led to 2 penalties, both kicked by Lopez. But a infringement in front of their own posts was duly punished by Halfpenny.
However, it was Clermont who scored the game’s 1st try, in the 25th minute. Morgan Parra charged down a kick off the back of a ruck by Sebastien Tillous-Borde and France centre Wesley Fofana gathered the loose ball and ran in unopposed before diving over flamboyantly for a try in the left corner.
Lopez missed the difficult conversion but Clermont were still 11 / 3 up before 2 more penalties from the remorseless boot of Halfpenny, cut their lead to just 2 points. Halfpenny then, surprisingly, missed a 45m effort from wide out on the right.
However, Toulon – having failed to get the most out of a star-studded back division for much of the opening 40 minutes – hit Clermont with a sucker-punch try on the stroke of halftime.
A blindside break from a ruck saw the ball moved quickly left to Bastareaud, with the France centre powering through a gap between prop Davit Zirakashvili and wing Noa Nakaitaci. Halfpenny, underlining his status as 1 of the world’s top goal-kickers, made light of the tricky conversion and Toulon, who had been 8 points down, instead led 16 / 11 at the break.
They nearly had a 2nd try early in the 2nd half when back row forward Steffon Armitage bounced off fullback Nick Abendanon. Armitage found Matt Giteau but the Australia flyhalf, with compatriot Mitchell and Halfpenny outside him, saw his back of the hand pass fly into touch as he was hauled down short of the line.
But Nakaitaci then gifted Toulon a penalty when, after making a mess of gathering the ball, he deliberately threw the ball into touch. Halfpenny’s boot made it 19 / 11.
It seemed as if Clermont’s handling errors and a series of Armitage turnovers, would deny them the try they needed. But just after the hour mark, Abendanon chipped the ball over the top of the defence and re-gathered to score a try under the posts. Lopez converted and Toulon were now just a point in front at 19 / 18.
However, Toulon came within inches of another try when New Zealand’s Ali Williams lost control just in the act of going over in the corner. But, with 11 minutes remaining, Mitchell’s class saw him score a superb try. Receiving the ball at pace on Clermont’s 10m line, he sidestepped several would-be defenders in a slalom run for a brilliant solo score.
Halfpenny though missed the conversion and Clermont still had hope but there was to be no revenge for their 2013 European final defeat by Toulon.
Man of the match:
Nick Abendanon was full of running and kept the Toulon defence on their toes and was rewarded with a brilliant individual try. Camille Lopez marshalled Clermont’s backline well and kept his side in the contest with 8 points from his boot. Both packs of forwards deserve a mention for their non-stop barrage of attacks and huge tackles. Leigh Halfpenny kept Toulon ahead with 16 points of his own. However, for an amazing warrior-like performance in his final match, the award goes to Ali Williams.
Moment of the Match:
Any of the 4 tries could claim the moment of the match and it was a tight decision between Nick Abendanon and Drew Mitchell after both players scores amazing tries. However, Abendanon gets the nod for his moment of individual brilliance in grabbing Clermont’s 2nd try of the match in the 62nd minute.
Villain of the match:
In a bruising encounter, tempers were likely to flair. However, the players kept their emotions in check for an incident free match.
Scorers:
ASM Clermont Auvergne:
- Tries: Wesley Fofana (1), Nick Abendanon (1)
- Conversions: Camille Lopez (1)
- Penalties: Camille Lopez (2)
RC Toulon:
- Tries: Mathieu Bastareaud (1), Drew Mitchell (1)
- Conversions: Leigh Halfpenny (1)
- Penalties: Leigh Halfpenny (4)
Teams:
ASM Clermont Auvergne: 15 Nick Abendanon, 14 Noa Nakaitaci, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Wesley Fofana, 11 Napolioni Nalaga, 10 Camille Lopez, 9 Morgan Parra, 8 Fritz Lee, 7 Damien Chouly (Captain), 6 Julien Bonnaire, 5 Sébastien Vahaamahina, 4 Jamie Cudmore, 3 Davit Zirakashvili, 2 Benjamin Kayser, 1 Vincent Debaty
Replacements: 16 John Ulugia, 17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Clément Ric, 19 Julien Pierre, 20 Julien Bardy, 21 Ludovic Radosavljevic, 22 Mike Delany, 23 Aurélien Rougerie.
RC Toulon: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Drew Mitchell, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Juan Martin Hernandez, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Chris Masoe, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 Juan Smith, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 Carl Hayman (Captain), 2 Guilhem Guirado, 1 Xavier Chiocci
Replacements: 16 Jean-Charles Orioli, 17 Alexandre Menini, 18 Levan Chilachava, 19 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 20 Virgile Bruni, 21 Rudi Wulf, 22 Frédéric Michalak, 23 Romain Taofifenua.
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Barnes (England), George Clancy (Ireland)
TMO: Graham Hughes (England)
rugby365
Toulon’s Ali Williams talking to Brian Moore and Connor ‘o Shea on talk sport radio, sounds like a top bloke. He has confirmed he will be retiring at the end of the season and he plans to go to London, but he was evasive on what he will be doing there saying he is hoping he can stay involved in the game.
Ali Williams will comment the world cup on TV that is for sure
Later we do not know
As for the match
A deserved win for Toulon
They had one dominant scrum this year and this was on Saturday
Hayman did destroy Debaty
Solid in touch
Good in defense in the maul
The big boys Smith Masoe did advance
Clermont did not gain any meter
and let Armitage and Bastaraud gain some turnover
Clermont was awful on high kick losing almost any restart
allowing toulon to put pressure on them
Mitchell did almost nothing this year
but a try in the final beating 6 defenders
22% of tackles missed by Clermont
Still Clermont could have won this one
though Toulon never felt insecure
I wonder why they did not play wider
Best for toulon
Hayman Williams Masoe Smith Armitage Bastaraud and Mitchell for his try
Best for Clermont
Abendanon Vahaamahina though both did some mistakes and Lee the only one to gain some meters + Bardy and Domingo when entering
Clearly under were
Bonnaire Chouly Cudmore Debaty Lopez Nalaga
Tillous Borde and Botha not that well during the match
A good Nigel Owens BTW
Still clermont can do something this year
but they will need to be at 110%
they may suffer against powerful pack like racing metro
Juan Smith is leaving
This guy can play where he wants
not the entire season but a good 20 matchs
@ rebop75:
hey rebo, hows Stade Francais doing in the top 14 and what are their chances?
We are struggling to qualify
we need to win one match @racing or @brive or against montpellier
tough times for us as we recently lost against stade Toulousain at home
key players wounded nayacalewu dupuy
plisson and bonneval out for the rest of the season
two players suspended
Papé since Ireland France
and Danty
here…
https://twitter.com/kakaOpopo/status/591753094649749504/photo/1
SF not pretty confident
and a bit not amused by the ref this year
Still we had some improvement
in touch and mauling
Re: SA players
Morne Steyn will make the rest of the season (he missed two succesive drop goals against Toulouse)
H Van der Meerwe still one of the best scumager in France
Mostert was wounded a couple times this year and is struggling
Bosman put on the bench by the young Danty but should come back
We wait for confirmation of Alberts arrival (there is some competion from premiership clubs)
Parisse had a good start but is struggling now
Hugh Pyle was the good recruit this year
very consistent
but a bit tired now
confirmed Arrivals
Genia (reds)
Paulo Emile (rebels)
Festina (prop Lyon)
Sio (young N°8 australia)
Powel (young winger Fidji)
confirmed departure
Lyons Rabadan Fillol (retired)
Kingi (serious illness)
Ioane (Japan ?)
SF lacks some power
and bench
we are still looking for a center and a winger
all will highly depend on our qualification for the european cup
when we have all our squad
we can beat anybody
but…
and we play a very pleasant rugby
it is not enough though
Should we qualify we may be the surprise of this year
but we have difficulties against strong packs like racing
or agressive teams like toulouse
We ll see
@ rebop75:
Interesting that ou say Alberts is moving there, that will be news to us South Africans.
Google translated from http://www.actu-rugby.fr/transfert-willem-alberts-proche-du-stade-francais/
The capital club, who is well on his recruitment for next season with the signings of two international names such as Australian Will Genia and three quarters Fijian Avenisi Vasuinubu, does not want to stop there way .
Indeed, guest of the program “Rugby and Radio Company of South”, the manager of the French Stadium Gonzalo Quesada has reviewed the actual Paris announcing that there were still positions to strengthen behind: “We are still looking a versatile winger and center. ”
In front of it is a bit the same music. If the group is already well, it certainly does not wish to tire spin its Saulier Pascal Pape and even wants a world-class player to strengthen his third shoulder line and the ever-present Sergio Parisse: “Third-line, a top player level is under study. ”
This international class player tracked for several months is named Willem Alberts (30, 1.91 m, 115 kg). He currently plays for the Sharks and has already met the manager Gonzalo Quasada there several months, an interview which was fenced by a verbal agreement from the Springbok (Read article)
here in France
a move to Europe for alberts
is a certainty
where does he land is the question
we had rumours he would come to SF since november
apparently he is a friend of mostert
and Stade Franaçis has a good reputation family style good mood blah blah
we will see
BTW
at the beginning
most of the critics (on this forum) against Jono Ross were true
keep the ball
not strong enough
but since he had some fairly good matches with us
our style fits him better
apparently
as other rumour Siya Kolisi to Toulouse
7 @ rebop75:
they attempted to mould him into a player he isnt, wont surprise me if he plays good rugby there, he had zero confidence by the time he left SA.
Yep the Kolisi rumour started in January, along with Frans Malherbe.
@ rebop75:
Hi rebop75 thanks for all the updates. Do you think Jake White’s Montpellier will qualify for the European Rugby Champions Cup?
I see you have 3 rounds of games left in your Top14 with Oyonax currently on 6th on 57 points and Montpellier on 7th with 51 points with Bordeaux in 8th also on 51 points. May be quite tough for Montpellier to qualify directly ie. by ending 6th but if they end 7th then they would still get a chance to qualify via the play off route.
This was written the day before the final:
“Simon Halliday, the newly-appointed chairman European Professional Club Rugby, claims the inaugural Champions’ Cup campaign has been a major success and should not be judged on the thousands of empty seats that are expected at Twickenham on Saturday for the final between French clubs Toulon and Clermont Auvergne.
There is expected to be over 30,000 empty seats at Twickenham, with a crowd of around 50,000 expected for what is likely to be the worst attended European final since Toulouse beat Perpignan in front of 28,600 in Dublin in 2003
Only 8,000 supporters are expected to travel from France to support the two clubs, while organisers have attempted to drum up local rugby support by offering discounted ticket deals. Tickets will also be available at the stadium on Saturday.
Such a poor turn-out is not the image that new governing body, formed by the new European agreement last year following almost two years of at times bitter wrangling, would have wanted as a back-drop to the first Champions’ Cup final.
The majority of the finals of the old Heineken Cup tournament, over the last decade were sell-outs, including Toulon’s victory over Saracens at the Millennium Stadium last season.
The switch of this year’s final to an early date at the behest of the French clubs to allow a greater end of season focus to their domestic competition has not helped ticket sales, while supporters of Top 14 clubs are traditionally less likely to travel to matches than the best supported English clubs and Irish provinces, in particular. ”
The last number I saw after the game regarding attendance was something like 56 662, having not seen any of it I wonder if this figure is the amount of tickets they shifted (sounds like there were a lot of give aways in the end) or the actual number of people who turned up on the day. What I didn’t see being referred to in that article is the venue of Twickenham being chosen as the first finals venue. If I remember correctly had the Heinken Cup still existed the final was due to be played in Milan this season.
Bullscot wrote:
They still have a chance
should they win against us…
but they really do not deserve it this year under galthié or white
BTW white was quite disrespectful of small clubs in France and ended loosing against them…
I trust more another club to win abroad the play-off that allows the 7th place against a celtic or english team
Bullscot wrote:
This is a joke
a quarter of european cup finals were between french clubs
still we had only three out of 20 finals located in France (and only one in Paris)
Ticket prices were high
and a couple of thousands were given away by mistake
Still 56 000 is not bad
I guess almost 20K for ASM and may be 5/7 for toulon
In Europe those who really travel are the irish (munster or leinster) and not the english (apart from leicester)
Should the final have been in Paris you would have had 80K easily
The boss of rugby do not realize how expensive england is (accomodation is pretty poor and expensive)
RWC is a real budget for French fans Especially Cardiff where it is difficult to find a place to sleep
we and my friends will sleep at bristol for example…
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