European champions Toulon battle early exit fears
Defending European champions Toulon may be looking at quitting France for the English Premiership but their most pressing concern is avoiding an exit from Europe this weekend.
Defending European champions Toulon may be looking at quitting France for the English Premiership but their most pressing concern is avoiding an exit from Europe this weekend.
The mega-rich French giants, whose controversial owner Mourad Boudjellal said he wants his team to play in the English top flight, travel to Bath on Saturday in their final European Rugby Champions Cup pool game on top of the table with a one-point lead over Wasps.
But they are living on their nerves in a tournament they have dominated for the last three years, needing a match-winning try from Australia wing Drew Mitchell after the final buzzer to beat Wasps 15-11 last week.
It’s going to be a very difficult game in Bath. All we want to do is ... find a way to win games away from home
With only the five group winners guaranteed places in the quarter-finals, Toulon can’t afford to slip up at Bath despite the English team playing only for pride with no chance of making the knockout rounds.
A defeat for them and a win for Wasps, who host rock-bottom Leinster, would leave the French side needing to secure a last-eight spot as one of the three best runners-up.
“It’s going to be a very difficult game in Bath. All we want to do is keep on improving and start to find a way to win games away from home,” said Toulon’s Australian fly-half Quade Cooper.
Wasps would have wrapped up Pool 5 had they won in France last weekend, but now they must try and avoid slipping to a second successive home defeat in the tournament having lost 25-23 to Bath in their last Ricoh Arena outing.
