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Have a look at reaction from Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues)
The last time the Blues tangled with Toulon away from their natural home of Stade Mayol they beat them to the Amlin Challenge Cup title. That was in Marseilles in 2010 and since then they have beaten the reigning Heineken Cup champions at the Arms Park.
So, will Toulon live to rue the day they opted to switch the crunch tie in Pool 2 to the much bigger Allianz Riviera in Nice? Toulon have yet to lose a Heineken Cup game at home, but they will have to be at their best to beat the Blues and stay on course for the knock-out phase.
“We are excited by the challenge of going out there to play in front of 30,000+ fans and the players have been fantastic in the last few months,” said Blues head coach Phil Davies.
Davies lost the services of outside half Rhys Patchell in his last game against the Dragons, ruled out for four months because of a knee injury, but have got Welsh loose head prop Gethin Jenkins back in the fold after fur frustrating weeks on the sidelines.
Jenkins could be a key figure in the Blues side, given that he was part of the Toulon squad that won the Heineken Cup last season. He will know better than anyone what makes Toulon tick at home and will need to galvanise the Blues pack for what is sure to be a trial of strength.
Toulon are in no mood to surrender their hard earned European title, although they have lost their last two games in the Top 14 – 14-9 in Paris against Racing Metro 92 and 22-21 last weekend at home against Grenoble.
The shock defeat to Grenoble meant Toulon dropped to fifth place in the Top 14, eight points behind the leaders ASM Clermont Auvergne. They won’t want to make it three defeats in a row!
Match Notes
- Cardiff defeated the reigning champions 19-15 at Cardiff Arms Park in Round 2.
- The two clubs also met in the pool stage last season when Toulon won on both occasions.
- No player has won more turnovers than Steffon Armitage (10) this season.
- Toulon are undefeated at home in the Heineken Cup (P9 W9).
- In 2013, the French side played nine Heineken Cup ties, winning seven and losing two.
- Cardiff are on a three-match winning run in the tournament – the last time they won four on the bounce was in 2011.
- A win against Glasgow Warriors last time out ended a five-match losing streak away from home for the Blues.
- Cardiff have won three, drawn one and lost 16 of their away matches against French clubs in the Heineken Cup.
- Toulon have won three and lost two against Welsh clubs in the competition.
- Cardiff’s kicking game is ranked as the third best in European club rugby this season based on the Amlin Opta Index (Toulon are ranked 6th).
- The 35,624-capacity Allianz Riviera in Nice will become the 104th stadium to stage a Heineken Cup game.
Une victoire bonifiée à la sirène face à Cardiff (43-20) offre au tenant du titre son billet pour les quarts de finale. Il lui faudra s'imposer à Glasgow samedi prochain pour le jouer à domicile. - 11/01/2014 18:28
The Heineken Cup champions are safely through to the quarter-finals after grabbing an injury time bonus point to ensure they clinched Pool 6 with a game still to play.
Playing at the Allianz Riviera stadium in Nice, in front of their best-ever European crowd of 31,150, Toulon had three penalties tries to thank for their success – and four yellow cards dished out to the battling Blues.
The Welsh region, who had beaten Toulon 19-15 at the Arms Park in the second round, stood up to the test manfully in the first-half and were only 15-13 behind at the break. The boot of Jonny Wilkinson had kicked five of his six penalty opportunities, while Samoan lock Filo Paulo conjured up the first try of the game.
His grub kick into the home 22 caused problems for Aussie full back Drew Mitchell and his attempted clearance kick was half charged down. Robin Copeland gathered the ball, sped for the corner and then passed inside to Paulo when he was tackled.
Paulo easily bumped off Wilkinson and his half back partner Seb Tillous-Borde to reach the corner. Leigh Halfpenny converted off the touchline to add to his two earlier penalties.
English referee Greg Garner had brandished his first card in the sixth minute, sending Chris Czekaj to the sin-bin for a technical offence, and then issued two more in the opening minutes of the second half.
Tight head prop Benoit Bourrust was the first to go after a collapsed scrum and then replacement back row man Ellis Jenkins followed suite for deliberately collapsing a driving maul. Both cards came after Garner had awarded penalty tries.
The third came at the death after Copeland had been despatched for kicking the ball out of the hands of Fred Michalak at a ruck in front of the Blues posts. At the resulting scrum the third penalty try was awarded.
Sandwiched in between the penalty tries was a corner score from Dave Smith and Wilkinson converted all four. The Blues battled back to grab a second try from Sam Hobbs in the 70th minute, but they were never able to reach the dizzy heights of their round two triumph.
Even so, they can still reach 18 points with a bonus point win over Exeter Chiefs at the Arms Park next weekend and could still clinch a ticket into the Amlin Challenge Cup last eight.
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