Toulon beat Munster to progress

In glorious conditions, Philippe Saint-Andre’s side reached the knock-out stages of Europe’s premier competition for the first time to the delight of their home supporters.

It was a powerful and clinical display from the hosts but it was Munster who got the first score of the afternoon.

Toulon were penalised for not rolling away at the ruck as Munster threatened and Ronan O’Gara simply tapped over the penalty.

The Toulon scrum provided the platform for their attacking game and their dominance put Munster under all sorts of pressure. The French side got their opening points through a Jonny Wilkinson penalty on eight minutes which he then followed up with two more in quick succession.

It was a moment of magic from dynamic scrum-half Pierre Mignoni which inspired the first try of the afternoon. Mignoni spotted a little gap in the Munster defence and put up a delightful kick for Christian Loamanu to chase and the big Fijian wing climbed high to collect the ball and score and Wilkinson added the conversion.

Munster responded immediately with a second penalty from O’Gara to keep the scoreboard ticking.

Just as Munster appeared to be getting the upper hand, Donncha O’Callaghan was sent to the sin-bin for taking a Toulon player out without the ball and Wilkinson had no problem kicking over the resulting penalty.

Mignoni was again at the heart of Toulon’s second try, weaving his way through the defence before sending the ball wide. Paul Sackey was the final receiver and with two defenders to beat, the England wing shrugged his way past to score right in the corner.

O’Gara added his third penalty on the stroke of half-time to have the last say of the first period.

The second period continued in much of the same vain as the first and Wilkinson kicked a further six points to stretch his side’s lead.

Munster threw everything at the hosts in the final 20 minutes, with wave after wave of attacks. David Wallace touched down for a well deserved late try which O’Gara converted.