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T. Albornoz (32'), D. Ribbans (51'), G. Fickou (63'), J. Kpoku (74')
Tries
N. Hulleu (21')
M. Jaminet (33', 52', 64'), T. Albornoz (75')
Conversions
J. Cotarmanac'h (21')
Penalties
J. Cotarmanac'h (29')
This was not about sparkle at Mayol. It was about a winless Toulon, stung by three narrow losses and an early yellow card, deciding to lean into structure and squeeze. They have been the nearly side through three rounds; this time they trusted their systems, tightened the tackle count, and let the scoreboard arrive on their terms. It looked like a team taking a breath and remembering who they are.
Vannes came with shape, energy and enough set-piece accuracy to make it a contest for an hour, as they did against Toulouse. But Top 14 is a league that tests the second half of your plan. Here they ran out of bite once the collisions started going one way, and once Toulon’s bench raised the tempo in the middle third, the promoted side couldn’t live with the repeat sets or the defensive density.
The game turned not on a flash but on Toulon’s refusal to chase it. Down 0–10 after 29 minutes and with Lewis Ludlam already in the bin early, panic would have been understandable. Instead, Tomas Albornoz picked his moments, carried hard himself, and his try before the break settled the place. After half-time, the home pack went to work. Phases stayed narrow, carries were punchy, and the red zone looked like a decision rather than a gamble. David Ribbans finished the first sustained siege after the break; from there, Toulon played the game in the half they wanted.
The substitutions helped. Gaël Fickou arrived for a quiet Huw Jones and immediately straightened the 13 channel, then hit the line for the third try with the kind of timing you pay for. Baptiste Serin cooled things down after Ben White had done his running, and the front-row changes at 46 minutes kept the set piece tidy and the lineout functional. All of it felt adult. When Junior Kpoku crashed over late, it was a product of 20 minutes of Toulon owning the ball and the contact.
The numbers back the shape of it. Toulon beat twice as many defenders as Vannes and missed fewer than half the tackles. They also pinched twice as many turnovers, which told in the key passages after the interval when Vannes tried to exit and were simply turned back into their own third.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
YELLOW CARD
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
There were standout shifts. Albornoz’s seven points only hint at his influence: 15 carries, two defenders beaten, and a willingness to take contact that fixed defenders and gave Juan Ignacio Brex and White front-foot ball. White broke once cleanly and offloaded twice; his threat around the ruck forced Vannes’ back row to sit, which mattered later when Serin arrived to steer. Out wide, Mathis Ferte quietly gouged 76 metres and six beaten defenders, the sort of backfield return that flips kick exchanges. Up front, Kpoku and Ludlam both made 11 tackles, with Kpoku adding the clincher and Ludlam grafting through after his early yellow.
For Vannes, the shape was there and the effort was honest. The lineout (15 from 17) supplied enough ball to build, and Ioane Iashagashvili gave them a proper focal point with 14 carries for 46 metres plus 17 tackles. Eric Marks worked himself to a standstill. Nathanaël Hulleu finished well and threatened before the break. But the cost of living up here is the contact quality, and it showed: 24 missed tackles, too many soft shoulders in that third quarter, and five turnovers from Jean Cotarmanac’h that bled them pressure and field position just when Toulon were locking the vice. Juan Bautista Pedemonte missed five as well; that edge of the defence was where Toulon kept probing.
Crucially, there was no scrum bailout either way to change the tide. Both sides were perfect on their own feed. That put the contest into open play, where Toulon’s breakdown aggression told. Eleven turnover wins is an afternoon of nuisance; even when it didn’t produce immediate points, it starved Vannes of multi-phase and forced them back to contestables they couldn’t chase in numbers.
Does 28–10 flatter Toulon? Not much. Vannes led for a long stretch and will feel the late Kpoku score stretched it, but the second half was a 21–0 shut-out built on territory, control and defence — nine misses across 80 minutes is a proper statement after three weeks of one-score losses. There’s still polish required: 19 turnovers conceded is too many, and the early yellow was the sort of indiscipline that has been costing them. But the closing quarter finally looked like a team comfortable protecting a lead rather than dreading the clock.
Vannes take a clear lesson. They’re organised and their set piece stacks up, but away to heavyweight squads, the defensive density and decision-making at 10 have to hold for 80, not 50. They pushed Toulouse at home and they were in this one for a long time; the step now is turning those stretches into points when the legs are heavy. Survival remains realistic, but trips like Mayol show exactly where the margins are.
For Toulon, context more than spectacle. They needed a first win and found it by tightening the screws, not searching for headlines. The bench answered, the defence held, and the midfield had answers when asked. The job now is to make this the baseline, clean up the penalties and the soft turnovers, and stop living at the mercy of late moments. Control travels; if they keep this version, the early noise will fade quickly.
