Saturday 10 January 2015 22:35, UK
Matt Giteau returned from injury to help Toulon to a 32-23 win against Racing Metro on Saturday.
The match took place in a highly-charged atmosphere in the wake of the tragic events in Paris this week – the players and spectators joined in both a minute's silence and applause followed by a rousing rendition from the stands of the French national anthem 'La Marseillaise'.
Toulon got off to a superb start scoring two tries in the opening 15 minutes. Their first came through full-back Leigh Halfpenny – set up by Giteau who has been out since late October with a groin injury – and the Welshman then gathered himself and converted.
Benjamin Dambielle reduced the deficit with a penalty for the visitors but they were hit by a second Toulon try in the 15th minute as former Springbok flanker Juan Smith stretched over.
Racing didn't do themselves any favours in terms of getting back into the match as they were reduced to 13 men in the 22nd minute with both Jamie Roberts and Adrien Plante sin-binned in separate incidents.
Halfpenny punished Roberts sin-binning with another penalty and the hosts then added a third try as Bryan Habana went over – this time Halfpenny saw his effort cannon back off a post – for his third try of the campaign. Toulon lost another of their formidable South African contingent when lock Bakkies Botha had to go off with what looked like a broken finger.
Toulon were suddenly on the back foot too as the visitors stormed back into the match with tries either side of half-time firstly through former Toulon wing Marc Andreu, who completely out-foxed Halfpenny.
Roberts got back in the good books as he sent Habana the wrong way to go over for his first this season three minutes into the second-half – the hosts down to 14 men as Drew Mitchell had been yellow-carded.
Dambielle converted them both to reduce the deficit to five points and they got to 22-20 when another former Toulon player, full-back Benjamin Lapeyre, landed a long range penalty in the 46th minute.
However Toulon responded in style. Halfpenny kicked a penalty and then Giteau did just enough to break a tackle and at full stretch touch down over the line for his 10th try of the season – Halfpenny converted for 32-20.
Dambielle hit back with a penalty in the 56th minute but try as they might Racing were unable to breach the Toulon line again and the hosts held out for victory on an emotionally-charged afternoon.
Elsewhere, Clermont stayed top of the league by running in six tries in a 44-20 bonus-point romp against Brive.
The try romp began after 32 minutes through full-back Jean-Marcellin Buttin as the home side built up an 11-0 lead from which they never looked back.
Further tries from Benjamin Kayser, Napolioni Nalaga with a quickfire brace after the interval, before Ludovic Radosavljevic crossed and a penalty try sealed the points against a Brive side who ran in three second-half tries of their own.
And Toulouse squeezed past rock-bottom La Rochelle 29-26 after seemingly cruising at 26-10 at the 50-minute mark. They scored four tries with centre Yann David scoring twice.
