Heineken Champions Cup review: Wins for Gloucester and Newcastle
A review of Sunday's Heineken Champions Cup games, including victories for Gloucester, Newcastle, Saracens and Cardiff.
Champions Cup results
- Gloucester 19-14 Castres
- Lyon 21-30 Cardiff Blues
- Glasgow 3-13 Saracens
- Toulon 25-26 Newcastle
Gloucester off the mark
Gloucester became the first English club to win a game in this season's Heineken Champions Cup as they beat Castres 19-14 at Kingsholm.
And fly-half Danny Cipriani led from the front just four days before England head coach Eddie Jones names his autumn Test squad.
The Gloucester playmaker, who was left out of Jones' latest training group last month, kicked four penalties and a conversion for a 14-point haul as the England boss looked on.
Scrum-half Callum Braley also scored a first half try for Gloucester, with their Pool Two triumph following European defeats for Wasps, Bath and Leicester, while Gallagher Premiership leaders Exeter were held 10-10 at home by Munster.
Whether Jones feels that Cipriani has done enough to prepare for Tests against South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Australia next month remains to be seen, but his tactical leadership could not be questioned, even if there were a couple of errors in open play.
Wing Martin Laveau scored a try and fly-half Julien Dumora booted two penalties and a drop-goal for French champions Castres, yet their miserable European away record now reads just four wins from 41 starts.
Newcastle pull off stunning win
Newcastle kick-started their campaign with a stunning 26-25 win against three-time European champions Toulon on their own patch, becoming just the second side to do so.
Their only previous defeat in 24 games in Europe's top tournament had been against Saracens two years ago, and Newcastle - bottom of the Gallagher Premiership going into the game - had to do it the hard way.
Dean Richards' side found themselves 10 points behind early on after conceding one of the quickest tries in the history of the competition when giant lock Romain Taofifenua charged down a clearing kick with only 21 seconds on the clock.
Francois Trinh-Duc added the conversion and then kicked a seventh-minute penalty to make it 10-0 to the home side, but that was as good as it got for the hosts.
They had three players sent to the sin-bin - prop Jean-Baptiste Gros, full back Daniel Ikpefan and winger Julian Savea - and were left to rue a decision in the final five minutes to kick for the corner, rather than take the three points on offer that might have won the game.
Sarries made to scrap
Saracens were made to scrap all the way as Mike Rhodes' early try proved enough to see off gritty Glasgow 13-3 at Scotstoun.
The two sides had crossed a combined 57 tries in just six matches apiece in the build-up to their Heineken Champions Cup opener but the expected score-fest failed to materialise.
Instead, the cross-border skirmish proved to be a tense, bad-blooded affair pot-marked by basic errors, inexplicable refereeing calls and numerous feisty head-to-heads.
In the end, Rhodes' first-half touchdown and eight points from the boot of Owen Farrell gave the joint-Gallagher Premiership leaders first blood in Pool 3, leaving Glasgow ahead of what already appears to be a make-or-break trip to Cardiff next Sunday.
Cardiff avoid Lyon blues
Cardiff Blues marked their return to the Champions Cup after a four-season gap with only their fourth win in 21 ties on French soil overturning an early deficit to triumph 30-21.
Lyon's debut in the tournament got off to a flying start as they sought revenge for their double defeat to the Blues as the Welsh side went all the way to win the Challenge Cup for the second time last season.
Lyon dominated from the start and excellent early defence from Tomos Williams held up a French shove over the line to prevent a certain try for Loann Goujon. But the home No 8 was not going to be denied
Having been held up from a line-out, he then picked up from the back of a five-metre scrum and powered over on the blindside to open the scoring in the fifth minute.
There was a hint of a knock-on as he picked up the ball at the base, but referee JP Doyle consulted his TMO David Grashoff and the score was given.
Lionel Beauxis nailed the touchline conversion and then added a penalty to give the home side a 10-0 lead.
The Blues were rattled, but they stuck to their guns and worked their way back into the game with some brave attacking play.
Tomos Williams raced clear into the 22, but his return pass to Willis Haloholo was not accurate enough to allow the centre to finish off the move.
The Blues camped in the home 22 without any success, but they finally opened their account after half-an-hour.
Lyon had cleared to half-way, but from the line-out Williams dummied his way past the first line of defence after receiving off the top from Olly Robinson. The scrum half raced 25 metres before releasing the supporting back row man Robinson for a sprint to the line from just outside the 22.
Gareth Anscombe added the conversion and from the restart the Blues conjured up a second try. They failed to take the kick-off and Lyon drove up to the 22.
Then scrum half Jean-Marc Doussain took too much time in delivering his pass to Beauxis and Blues skipper Ellis Jenkins nipped in to steal an intercept. The flanker pinned back his ears, raced up to the home 22 before handing on to Williams, who turned final defender Rudi Wulf inside out before scoring a try in the right corner that Anscombe improved off the touchline.
Having been behind for 20 minutes, suddenly the Blues were ahead at last, although by the break the big boot of Beauxis had edged the Frenchmen back in front as he kicked two long-range penalties to punish scrum offences by the under pressure Blues front five.
Anscombe replied with two penalties of his own in the opening eight minutes of the second half to steer his side back into the lead. The Wales star, playing at full back, then cut clean through from half-way to score a wonder try that he also converted to stretch the lead to 11 points with another conversion.
Lyon scored a try through Quentin Delord with 90 seconds to play to seemingly secure a losing bonus-point, but a Jenkins turn-over penalty in front of the posts allowed Anscombe to steal it away from them with the final kick of the match to take his match tally to 20 points.
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