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M. Jaminet (8', 21', 32'), H. Jones (36'), O. Cowie (44'), B. Gigashvili (50')
Tries
S. Tokolahi (60'), S. Grondona (69')
M. Jaminet (22', 37', 45', 51')
Conversions
A. Desperes (60', 69')
M. Jaminet (80')
Penalties
A. Desperes (11', 16')
This was RC Toulon choosing control over chaos. They kicked more, bossed the lineout and played the game in Pau’s half. And when chances came, they were ruthless. Melvyn Jaminet cashed in with a hat-trick and 26 points, but the real story was how Toulon kept putting Pau back in the corners and made the visitors restart from scratch.
It told us something else too: when Section Paloise can’t trust their own throw or their handling, their attack unravels. Pau had a perfect scrum but a scratchy lineout and coughed up 16 turnovers. Against a side that kicked 32 times to 22 and controlled 53% territory, that’s a losing recipe at Mayol. Toulon didn’t need to dominate possession; they won the air and the map, then finished far better — six tries to two.
Under Franck Azéma, Toulon have quietly settled on a direct, low-risk blueprint: pressure the touchlines, squeeze the lineout, strike from clean ball. Their throw hit at 90% to Pau’s 77%, which fed an early scoreboard lead and, more importantly, repeated entries. When Toulon went to touch they delivered shape and speed; when Pau went to touch they too often lost either lift timing or the next ruck. That is where this game turned, long before the final whistle.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
YELLOW CARD
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
Jaminet’s three first-half finishes were the headline, but they were the end of a process. Toulon kicked to contest, won the chase or the exit, then played off a stable launch. With the pack getting over the gain line, the full-back was picking off soft shoulders and fractured spacing. The fourth try, finished by Huw Jones, underlined the point: front-foot ball, a tight angle line, and Pau’s midfield caught square. There was nothing extravagant about it. Just accuracy.
Pau’s response showed why the margin sits where it does. Their scrum was spotless and there were flashes — Rodrigo Marta slicing up the right, Théo Attissogbé roving for metres from deep, and Santiago Grondona finishing late to suggest a wobble. But too often those breaks arrived from unstructured ball, not from sustained red-zone pressure. The misfiring lineout and 16 turnovers strangled their ability to stack phases and force penalties. Even when Setariki Tuicuvu was binned on 72 minutes, Pau couldn’t convert the field position into more than a dent. Toulon closed it down and Jaminet’s 80th-minute penalty underlined who was calling the shots.
The individual balance tilted Toulon’s way in the dark arts. Lewis Ludlam made a game-high 20 tackles and kept Pau’s carriers behind the gain line. Zach Mercer added 17 more and plenty of tidy carry work to reset tempo. Out wide, Oliver Cowie not only finished after the break but kept turning Pau back with abrasive breakdown work and kick pressure. In the tight, Teddy Baubigny’s throw held up under heat, and the bench impact was real: Beka Gigashvili punched a hole for the sixth try and helped slam the door on any late swing.
Pau weren’t without standouts. Julian Montoya tackled himself to a standstill, Beka Gorgadze carried 16 times to keep them on task, and Attissogbé’s 96 metres showed the backfield threat is there. But this was a night for basics and Pau’s weren’t good enough. A 77% lineout away from home is a handbrake; the caller-jumper connection misfired and, once on the deck, Toulon’s jackals slowed or stole ball. You can point to the sterile domination of the scrum, but it never translated into repeat entries.
Does 41–20 flatter Toulon? Not really. They led for 69 minutes, out-scored Pau six tries to two and produced more clean breaks. If anything, the pattern felt set early: Toulon in the right parts of the field, Pau scrambling back. That said, Azéma won’t love the work-ons. An 88% scrum, the higher penalty count and a late yellow are issues that stronger sides will punish. The tackle completion was patchy as well; their scramble saved them more than once.
For Toulon, the takeaway is clarity. Territory, an accurate lineout and a backfield led by Jaminet make for a pragmatic, repeatable plan. With Mayol in this mood, it travels better than the error-strewn stuff they were serving a month ago. For Pau, this doesn’t undo a good start, but it’s a red flag: their lineout and breakdown habits on the road aren’t at a top-four level. Fix the throw and tidy the carry support, and that clean scrum suddenly becomes a platform, not a statistic.
