Heineken Champions Cup: Toulon 26-14 Sale
- Published
France wing Gabin Villiere scored Toulon's first try
Heineken Champions Cup Pool A |
|---|
Toulon (16) 26 |
Tries: Villiere, Moyano; Cons: Carbonel 2; Pens: Carbonel 4 |
Sale (0) 14 |
Tries: Yarde, Phillips; Cons: MacGinty 2 |
Sale lost their first game under new coach Paul Deacon with a defeat in Toulon in the Heineken Champions Cup.
Steve Diamond brought his 10-year spell in charge of the Sharks to a sudden end on Tuesday.
Sale kept up a solid defence for 20 minutes, but Gabin Villiere eventually crossed for the three-time champions.
Argentina wing Ramiro Moyano added a second try before Marland Yarde and James Phillips' late scores offered some consolation for Sale.
Toulon fly-half Louis Carbonel - who made his international debut for France in November - was impressive from the tee, scoring 16 points for the hosts.
Late Sale surge not enough
Sale looked unperturbed by their sudden coaching change as they kept Toulon at bay early on, but the French side eventually got on the scoreboard with a Carbonel penalty.
Fly-half AJ MacGinty missed a chance at three points and Carbonel doubled his side's lead before setting up the opening try.
The 21-year-old chipped the ball over Sale's defence, gathered and sent it left for former sevens player Villiere to score.
Carbonel added six more points either side of half-time as Sale's ill discipline continued before a classy overhead offload from Italy legend Sergio Parisse set up Moyano's score.
A late Sale surge ensured they did not leave scoreless, with Sam James chipping over for Sam Dugdale, whose impressive backhand pass sent Yarde over.
South Africa scrum-half Faf de Klerk also made his presence felt off the bench, finding Phillips with a pin-point pass that allowed the lock to score the Sharks' second.
Sale welcome Edinburgh to the AJ Bell next Saturday, while Toulon travel to Llanelli to play Scarlets on Friday.
This year's tournament has a new format, with two 12-team pools. Each team plays two other sides from their pool in home and away fixtures.
Then, the top four teams from each pool advance to the quarter-finals, while the sides placed fifth to eighth in both pools drop into the European Challenge Cup.
'The lads did Steve proud' - what they said
Sale head coach Paul Deacon said: "I think the lads did Steve [Diamond] proud. He put this squad together. Hopefully he was watching and enjoyed it.
"I'm proud of their effort. It was what I was after this week - the togetherness was fantastic with the way we fought back in the last 20 minutes.
"The scoreboard got away from us in the first half which was unfortunate, but the lads stuck at it and that's the pleasing thing."
Line-ups
Toulon: Paia'aua; Moyano, Toeava, Nonu, Villiere; Carbonel, Serin; Gros, Etrillard, Setiano, Etzebeth, Alainu'uese, Rebbadj, Lakafia, Parisse.
Replacements: Tolofua, Devauz, Tchelidze, Taofifenua, Isa, Moretti, Meric, Dakuwaqa.
Sale: L James; Yarde, R Du Preez, S Hill, Hammersley; MacGinty, Cliff; Rodd, Van der Merwe, John, Postlethwaite, Phillips, Wiese, Ross (capt), J-L du Preez.
Replacements: Langdon, Harrison, Cooper-Woolley, Ashman, Dugdale, de Klerk, S James, Solomona.
