Following Toulon’s 27-25 Investec Champions Cup win over Munster at Stade Mayol, here are our winners and losers.
Winners
Jack O’Donoghue
With the limelight-dominating Peter O’Mahony now retired, the 31-year-old has had a clear runway to fully demonstrate his back-row value to Munster, and he was at the top of his game in Toulon. Combative the whole way through, his commitment in defence and determination to hit hard was second to none. Scoring tries hasn’t been a frequent occurrence in his game, but he came up trumps to revive his team with 13 minutes remaining, setting up a thrilling finish. Let’s hope this benchmark performance is repeated in the weeks and months ahead.
Marius Domon
Last season was very much the 23-year-old ex-sevens player’s breakthrough season on the French scene, comfortably settling into the No.15 shirt and keeping it all the way through until near the end of the campaign when he assumed a bench role behind Melvyn Jaminet. Place-kicking wasn’t part of his arsenal – there were just a half-dozen penalty kicks and five conversions in 26 appearances. Even though it’s still not something he is regularly tasked with, he stepped forward on Sunday for Toulon and did the business, adding two penalties – including the match-winner – and three conversions to his first-half try. His effort was so influential.
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Munster’s second rows
Fifty-five minutes was all that second row Edwin Edogbo was given by Munster, who opted to send on the cavalry with a four-man switch, but the recently turned 23-year-old did enough during his time involved to show he has a bright future. Winning two turnovers was evidence of his core strength, and it was all the more impressive that it came against a Toulon pack merited for his level of homefield physicality. Edogbo’s partner in crime, the much older and experienced Fineen Wycherley, also continued to cut the mustard with the level of his contribution, especially with the regularity of his tackling. The pair is a nice partnership in the making.
Losers
Karl Dickson
Any match decided by a not-so-clear and obvious infringement isn’t a good look for a sport constantly looking to bring new fans into the fold. We should be talking about entertaining play, not fussing over the merits of why the whistle was blown. Whereas the penalty decision that won Leinster their Saturday night match against La Rochelle was evident and left no room for argument, Dickson’s result-deciding decision in Toulon against Munster’s Tom Farrell was very much interpretative. The curious thing about it was how the official had issued in-play warnings before penalising Munster at some previous breakdowns, but there was no caution when it mattered, only instant punishment.
Tadhg Beirne
It was just five weeks ago when the Munster talisman was given a sharp reminder about the need to stay on the field. Bath ran amok following his early sin-binning, resulting in his team getting soundly beaten, and his latest yellow card on Sunday also proved costly as Toulon struck for two converted tries in his absence. Alex Nankivell was also carded, but Beirne is a world-class player, the only one currently in the Munster ranks, and he has got to start getting on the right side of the officials and stop being the fall guy. Remember, it’s a run that started with his 20-minute red card for Ireland against the All Blacks. Admittedly, that sanction was rescinded, restoring his good name with Ireland, but these on-the-road yellows are a serious issue for Munster.
Pierre Mignoni
Having sent a rag-tag team to suffer a hideous Top 14 battering at La Rochelle last weekend, it was obvious that Toulon had targeted this fixture versus Munster as an opportunity to demonstrate they are a serious Champions Cup title threat. Not since 2015 have they scaled the mountain, completing their title hat-trick, but what their rested-up team produced on Sunday left their coach screaming like a cry-baby at times on the sideline and ultimately only bagging a lucky victory without the four try bonus point. Their first-half error count suggested a team not well coached in the build-up. While Toulon still finished round three sitting third in Pool 2, they can still be squeezed out in the qualification race if they don’t pitch up properly at Gloucester to finish out a group where all six clubs are still in the hunt to progress.