Glasgow Warriors 19-43 Toulon: French side power to EPCR Challenge Cup
- Published
The great Sergio Parisse scored one of Toulon's six tries as he signs off with a trophy
EPCR Challenge Cup final: Glasgow Warriors v Toulon |
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Glasgow Warriors: (0) 19 |
Tries: Steyn (2), Cancelliere Cons: Horne (2) |
Toulon: (21) 43 |
Tries: Serin (2), Parisse, Wainiqolo, Nayacalevu, West; Pen: Paillaugue; Cons: Serin (3), Paillaugue (2) |
Toulon overpowered meek Glasgow Warriors to claim the European Challenge Cup and give the retiring Sergio Parisse the perfect send off.
The 39-year-old Italian legend scored between two Baptise Serin tries as the French side cruised to a 21-0 lead at the break.
Glasgow never looked like becoming the first Scottish side to win a European trophy, despite Kyle Steyn's riposte, as Fijian fliers Jiuta Wainiqolo and Waisea Nayacalevu stretched Toulon's lead.
Sebastian Cancelliere and Steyn salvaged some pride for Glasgow, but Toulon fittingly had the last laugh as Ihaia West crossed with two minutes remaining to clinch the club's first Challenge Cup.
Toulon had heroic performances from Serin, Nayacalevu, Cheslin Kolbe and Charles Ollivon among a battalion of others, but all eyes turned to Parisse at the end.
The wonder man was excellent as he has been for practically every day of his extraordinary career.
The Glasgow fans might not have been minded to salute him, but everybody else in rugby would have done so heartily. He'll be exiting the game in the blink of an eye but the legacy? Sensational, absolutely sensational.
Glasgow were quietly confident that they could spoil the farewell, but it would have required them to turn up in Dublin to do that and they didn't. In body, yes. In attitude and accuracy and every last thing you need to win big finals? Nowhere close. They'll have a world of regrets over this drubbing.
In their absolute worst nightmares Glasgow couldn't have imagined such a grim final, a non-performance when what they needed was their greatest performance. They were an incoherent mess in going 21-0 down and a bit of a sad case as they toiled horribly to make a game of it.
They had huge chunks of attacking minutes in the opening half, masses of excellent field position, five metre scrums, five metre lineouts, overlaps and they butchered every one of them with a lack of accuracy, an outbreak of panic and some wretched decision making.
Glasgow needed a whole lot more than soft-touch rugby if they were to give themselves even half a chance of climbing out of the hole they were in, but a dramatic comeback never looked likely. Toulon just waited about in defence and waited for Glasgow to cough it up.
It all went so wrong, so quickly for the underdogs. Toulon had lost four Challenge Cup finals out of four - and lost Dan Biggar inside a few minutes - but before the first quarter was over they were screaming hot favourites to win this one.
Serin went off injured at the break but he'd done more than enough damage in the 40 minutes he played.
His first try was opportunistic brilliance, a subtle grubber through the narrowest of gaps in the Glasgow 22 and a quickfire pick-up and finish. Ruthless. And way too rapid for Glasgow. Serin's conversion make it 7-0 and the Scots were spooked.
Toulon made them suffer again soon after. Glasgow coach Franco Smith had made some monstrous calls in his team selection when leaving Johnny Matthews, his try-scoring hooker, Richie Gray, his lineout kingpin and Rory Darge, his back-row wrecking ball, on the bench. All three calls backfired horribly.
Glasgow's lineout was catastrophic. The great Parisse's try had its origins in an error out of touch by the Warriors, a ball slapped down and gobbled up Toulon. Parisse blasted over from close range.
Toulon fed off Glasgow's blunders and there was another at the lineout that led to a third score for the French. The thrower, the lifters, the jumpers were all at sea as the ball soared over the back to Charles Ollivon.
In the next wave, Nayacalevu thundered past Sione Tuipulotu in midfield. When they were in striking distance, Serin threw a dummy close to the Glasgow line and the Warriors bought it.
Over he went for his second score, over went the conversion and over and out went the cry from the Glasgow fans. At 21-0, there was no coming back. The only thing left to be decided at that point - and we were only in the 25th minute - was how bad was it going to get. Gruesomely bad, as it turned out.
Toulon were on a different level. It helped them that Glasgow lacked anything resembling composure and conviction when in good position, but the gulf in class was stark.
There was piling on the pain as it went on. Benoit Paillaugue lobbed over a penalty to take it to 24-0 and even when Steyn finished smartly down the short side to get Glasgow on the board, Wainiqolo danced over straight after.
Toulon were patient and powerful in their phases, just turning the screw as they went. The outstanding Nayacalevu got on the end of those inexorable passages of play, powering his way through a broken defence to stretch the lead to 29 points.
The Glasgow cavalry was sprung from the bench. Far too late. Cancelliere and a second from Steyn removed some of the ugly look from the score but it meant nothing, West's late try rubbed more salt in the wound in any event.
The final was long since done before all of that unfolded, the glory was all Toulon's. Parisse's, in particular. His last big day and he went out in the grandest style.
Line-ups
Glasgow Warriors: Smith, Cancelliere, Jones, Tuipulotu, Steyn, Miotti, Horne; Bhatti, Brown, Z Fagerson, Du Preez, Cummings, M Fagerson, Vailanu, Dempsey.
Replacements: Matthews, McBeth, Berghan, Gray, Bean, Darge, Price, McDowall.
Toulon: Kolbe, Wainiqolo, Vuidravuwalu, Paia'aua, Villiere, Biggar, Serin; Priso, Baubigny, Gigashvili, Tanguy, Alainu'uese, Du Preez, Ollivon, Parisse.
Replacements: Tolofua, Gros, Brookes, Isa, Bastareaud, Paillaugue, West, Sinzelle.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)