Saracens, who have not lost here for nigh on 11 months, will enjoy home advantage in the quarter-finals after eventually subduing Toulon in a juddering clash of super-heavyweights that resonated to the beat of smash hits. Chris Ashton scored the game’s only try 20 minutes from time and it looked like costing the club he is joining in the summer a place in the last eight before Leigh Halfpenny’s boot earned them one of the best runners-up slots.
Saracens stretched their unbeaten record in the tournament to 15 matches, closing in on Leinster’s record of 17, but they had to scour every page of their playbook to come up with the winning score on the hour against opponents who belied their poor away record this season to take the game to the holders.
It took desperate tackles in the last five minutes by Michael Rhodes and Will Skelton, the latter playing his final match for Saracens before returning to Australia, on Matt Giteau and Samu Manoa respectively to ensure the win and thus Saracens had a home tie in the quarter-final. In terms of opportunities created, Toulon should have won.
Bryan Habana was held up on the line by Owen Farrell in the opening minutes before Giteau, making his first start of the season, freed Josua Tuisova on the right wing. The Fijian had an unopposed run to the line but as he went to touch the ball down he inadvertently kicked it with his right foot and was ruled to have knocked on.
Toulon used their powerful centres and Tuisova, who is known as the human bulldozer, to test the endurance of Saracens in defence and attack and in the forwards they were even more confrontational. The home side struggled to widen the point of attack, wrapped up by tacklers around the fringes, and their half-backs resorted to tactical kicking to achieve territory.
When Schalk Brits came on at hooker early in the second half his ability to step out of contact gave Saracens momentum and it was after his break that they scored. The centre Nick Tompkins, who became increasingly influential, again used footwork at the point of contact to keep a move alive and to get to within a metre of the line. When the ball was quickly moved left Ashton went between Ma’a Nonu and Giteau for a try that put his side 10 points up.
Toulon were, at that point, out of the tournament they dominated earlier this decade but, as Richard Cockerill prowled the touchline in his first visit to a Premiership ground since being sacked as Leicester’s director of rugby this month, the team that lost at the Scarlets and blundered to victory at Sale was seized by desire. Halfpenny’s long-range penalty secured the point they needed and they finished the match on top, denied a draw only by the grit of Saracens who, on a day when they were missing seven Test players, owed much to Rhodes and Jackson Wray in the back row on an afternoon of unremitting ferocity – one when rumours of Toulon’s demise proved unfounded.
Saracens will have to wait until the final pool matches are played on Sunday before knowing who they will face in the last eight. It will not be Toulon, who are bound for Clermont Auvergne, but by April all their injured players will have returned, including the No8 Billy Vunipola, who was on television duty.
Sarries have missed the gainline-breaking surges of the Vunipola brothers but Wray carried the ball for 83 metres, more than any of his team-mates or opponents. He may not scatter defenders in the same manner but his appetite for battle is insatiable. So, too, that of Rhodes, who followed up a try-saving tackle against Exeter that secured a draw two weeks ago, with one on Giteau that was utterly breathtaking.
In both instances, it looked an act more of desperation than expectation. Giteau was confident of scoring after Toulon, moving right, had created space. The fly-half looked at the line in front of him and seemed about to acknowledge his try when Rhodes stretched himself out fully and wrapped up man and ball in an act that summed up why Saracens are so difficult to beat.
“It was a massive effort by us,” said Mark McCall, the Saracens director of rugby. “There were some coming-of-age performances.”
In the past three weeks Sarries have drawn two matches and won a third by seven points having been forced on the defensive for long periods but, given the number of players they are missing, the run shows why they are the leading team in Europe. They never give in.
Saracens: Lozowski; Ashton, Bosch, Tompkins, Maitland; Farrell (capt), Wigglesworth; Barrington (Lamositele 60), George (Brits 52-73), du Plessis (Figallo 52), Itoje, Hamilton (Skelton 52), Rhodes, Burger, Wray.
Try: Ashton. Conversion: Farrell. Penalty: Farrell.
Toulon: Halfpenny; Tuisova, Bastareaud, Nonu, Habana; Giteau, Tillous-Borde (Pelissie 62); Delboulbes (Chiocci ht), Guirado, Chilachava (van der Merwe 52), Gorgodze, Taofifénua (Suta 51), Smith (Manoa 64), Fernandez Lobbe (Gill 60), Vermeulen.
Penalty: Halfpenny.
Yellow card: Vermeulen 30
Referee: Nigel Owens
Attendance: 10,000
Match rating: 7
