Stade Francais stun champions Toulon to reach Top 14 final

Stade Francais' players celebrate after their win over Toulon

Stade Francais stunned triple European champions Toulon with a 33-16 success to reach the Top 14 final.

Led by the irrepressible Italian back row forward Sergio Parisse, Stade scored tries through flankers Rapahel Lakafia and Antoine Bourban, before a freak late score from wing Julien Arias gave a flattering skew to the final scoreline as they reached their first final since 2007.

Toulon had opened the scoring through Australian wing Drew Mitchell but then paid for crucial handling errors and numerous turnovers as Stade beat them for the third time this season.

It was a sad end for a number of veteran stalwarts whose club careers ended with this defeat, including South Africa's Bakkies Botha, Ali Williams and Carl Hayman of New Zealand.

If Stade's task in upsetting Toulon wasn't already hard enough, they gifted the reigning French title-holders an early try as well.

Juan-Martin Hernandez chipped ahead down the right wing and Stade backs Jonathan Danty and Djibril Camara collided in trying to recover the bouncing ball, allowing Mitchell to snatch it out of the air and run unopposed to touch down.

Wales international full-back Leigh Halfpenny added the extras and six minutes in, Stade's mountain appeared even more imposing than ever.

Yet the Parisians quickly regrouped and South Africa fly-half Morne Steyn kicked a penalty to get them off the mark.

Halfpenny responded on 11 minutes only for Steyn to land a monster of a kick from halfway to cut the deficit to 10-6.

Inspirational

Stade recovered from the concession of an early try to end Toulon's reign

The game swung on a moment of genius from inspirational captain Parisse on 24 minutes, clawing a looped pass from prop Rabah Slimani out of the air one-handed and then playing a pass behind the back inside, taking out two tacklers, for Lakafia to dive over.

Steyn made no mistake with the conversion and for the first time Stade were in front.

Halfpenny missed a penalty five minutes later but did draw Toulon level on 33 minutes.

Yet there was still time for Stade to take charge before the break following a fluid period of running rugby in which the ball changed hands several times from turnovers.

Toulon failed to secure the ball at the back of a ruck close to halfway and Bourban pounced, easily weaving through a gap before sprinting in for the score, which Steyn converted for a 20-13 interval lead.

Halfpenny and Steyn again exchanged penalties early in the second half, although the Springbok international also missed a couple of long-range attempts.

Yet he did notch a kick from much closer in after Toulon flanker Steffon Armitage held on in the tackle to give the Parisians a 10-point lead with less than 10 minutes remaining.

Toulon twice fumbled the ball in the Stade 22 when pushing for a try and then did so again after the final buzzer when trying to run back the ball from behind their own tryline, gifting Arias an easy score.