Toulon wins with the offensive bonus point against Bayonne

Toulon : 39
Bayonne : 19

Toulon, carried by an elusive Gaël Dréan, won (39-19) in style at home against Bayonne on Saturday during the tenth day of Top 14 and temporarily climbed onto the podium.

The Rugby Club Toulonnais passes its opponent of the day in the ranking and comes back on the heels of Toulouse and Bordeaux-Bègles. For its part, Aviron Bayonnais lost for the first time since October 5 and saw its series of four successes come to an end. The Basque club could even leave the top 6 at the end of this day. Yet very well launched in the match, Toulon scared themselves but were able to count on their winger Dréan and an inspired hinge to win this meeting.

Dréan, too strong

Pierre Mignoni's men quickly took the lead thanks to their winger Gaël Dréan, in all the right shots and author of a double in less than a quarter of an hour (6^e12^e). The young Varois could even have scored a third time if his try had not been refused after the intervention of the video referee (24^e). The Toulonnais lost all their offensive tempo, leaving Aviron Bayonnais to regain color.

Almost trailing by 21 points, the Bayonnais thought they had done the hardest part by coming back to just four points at the break after a try from the opening half Joris Segonds (13-17) but the three-quarter center Mathieu Smaïli restarted the Toulouse machine upon returning from the locker room. Shortly after the hour mark, Gaël Dréan, again, set the Basque defense on fire to send Baptiste Serin behind the line (62^e) and register his third try of the afternoon (66^e), his fifth of the season.

Despite the perfection of the game at the foot of Joris Segonds, author of a 100%, Bayonne did not succeed in countering the enterprising attacks of their opponents of the day, too strong, but above all determined not to give up in front of their audience.

Thanks to this improved success, the RCT remains undefeated at home this season and climbs the rankings before traveling to Perpignan next Saturday (9:05 p.m.).

Bayonne will have the opportunity to make up for it in front of its home crowd the next day against Stade Français (9:05 p.m.) to forget this fourth setback of the season, the third without a defensive bonus.