Stade Français topple Toulon

Stade Français ended a turbulent fortnight by getting back to winning ways at home to Toulon at the Stade Jean Bouin on Sunday.

A match full of indiscipline ended with both sides having three players yellow carded, including five front-rowers overall.

Waisea Nayacalevu and Mathieu Bastareaud were the respective try scorers for either side, but it was the boot of Stade fly-half Jules Plisson which proved to be the difference after he landed four penalties.

And it was thanks to Plisson that the hosts got off to a fast start, two early three-pointers coming either side of a yellow card for Bryan Habana for a deliberate knock-on.

François Trinh-Duc hit back after Toulon won a scrum penalty but Plisson’s next penalty opened up a 9-3 gap, the France international striking again before the break to make it 12-3.

A try from Nayacalevu in the 48th minute then looked to put the game beyond Toulon, trailing 17-3, but growing frustrations from referee Thomas Charabas over the state of the scrum led to Rabah Slimani and Florian Fresia being yellow carded.

Bastareaud’s try before the 60-minute mark gave Toulon a lifeline but despite a Trinh-Duc penalty in the 71st minute they could only come away with a losing bonus point.

The scorers:

For Stade Français:
Try: Nayacalevu
Pens: Plisson 4
Yellow Cards: Van der Merwe, Slimani, Alo-Emile

For Toulon:
Try: Bastareaud
Pens: Trinh-Duc 2
Yellow Cards: Habana, Ertillard, Fresia

Stade Français: 15 Hugo Bonneval, 14 Waisea Nayacalevu, 13 Geoffrey Doumayrou, 12 Jonathan Danty, 11 Julien Arias, 10 Jules Plisson, 9 Will Genia, 8 Raphaël Lakafia, 7 Sylvain Nicolas, 6 Antoine Burban, 5 Paul Gabrillagues, 4 Hugh Pyle, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Laurent Sempere, 1 Heinke Van der Merwe
Replacements: 16 Laurent Panis, 17 Zurabi Zhvania, 18 Abdellatif Boutaty, 19 Sergio Parisse, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Sekou Macalou, 22 Morné Steyn, 23 Paul Alo-Emile

Toulon: 15 Drew Mitchell, 14 Axel Muller, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Ben Barba, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Liam Gill, 6 Juan Smith, 5 Samu Manoa, 4 Juandré Kruger, 3 Levan Chilachava, 2 Anthony Etrillard, 1 Florian Fresia
Replacements: 16 Guilhem Guirado, 17 Xavier Chiocci, 18 Swan Rebbadj, 19 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 20 Anthony Belleau, 21 Ma’a Nonu, 22 Éric Escande, 23 Marcel Van der Merwe

Referee: Thomas Charabas
Assistant Referees: Salem Attalah, Jean-Luc Rebollal
TMO: Laurent Sclafer