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M. Garcia (8'), M. Ferte (16'), B. Serin (50')
Tries
J. Nowell (13'), W. Waqanisaravi (45')
M. Jaminet (50')
Conversions
A. Hastoy (46')
M. Jaminet (40')
Penalties
A. Hastoy (4', 18', 52')
This one said more about nerve and detail than shape or set piece. La Rochelle left with the points because they were colder in the big moments and because Antoine Hastoy kept taking the ones on offer. Toulon had the running, had the breaks, had the ball — and let it all dribble away through imprecision and a scoreboard that never quite reflected their pressure.
Look at what mattered late: from the 52nd minute on, after Hastoy nudged the visitors ahead, the game shut down. La Rochelle didn’t outplay Toulon in that stretch; they outlasted them. They folded in numbers, scrambled hard, and lived off Toulon errors at the contact. A bench punch from Watisoni Waqanisaravi had already landed, but it was composure from ten and discipline at the ruck that decided it. Toulon, by contrast, piled up phases and carried themselves to a standstill without the clarity to turn red-zone visits into points.
Toulon’s dominance on the carry should have been enough. They saw 58% of the ball, made twice the clean breaks and three times the beaten defenders. Huw Jones cut La Rochelle open for 117 metres with two clean breaks; Melvyn Jaminet added 80 more from the back; Lewis Ludlam put down 14 carries and 11 tackles. Yet the ledger reads two unconverted first-half tries and a solitary second-half kick to show for long spells on the front foot. In a one-point game, those missing four conversion points glare.
CARRIES
CLEAN BREAK
DEFENDER BEATEN
TACKLE
MISSED TACKLE
TURNOVER WON
TURNOVERS CONCEDED
PENALTY CONCEDED
YELLOW CARD
POSSESSION
SCRUMS
LINEOUTS
The turning point wasn’t a single play so much as La Rochelle’s reaction to their own mistakes. Levani Botia went to the bin early and Toulon duly scored — only for Jack Nowell to hit back while still a man down. That passage told you La Rochelle were willing to absorb pain and stay in the fight. Once the benches came, it tilted further. Waqanisaravi, on from the break, brought directness Toulon struggled to floor: seven carries, two defenders beaten, two offloads and a finish that swung momentum. When Toulon punched back through Baptiste Serin to retake the lead, Hastoy calmly nudged his third penalty to put it away. That was the difference — a reliable boot over Toulon’s wastefulness.
It wasn’t won at scrum or lineout. Both packs hit 100% at scrum time and were near parity at the lineout, which meant this became a breakdown and decision-making contest. There, La Rochelle’s seven turnovers won — led by a back row that kept their feet and hands — blunted Toulon’s multi-phase surges just enough. Toulon coughed up 16 turnovers of their own, and every cheap spill or isolated carry fed La Rochelle’s ability to clear, reset and run the clock. The visitors missed a heap of tackles overall, which is a big red flag, but their scramble and inside-out spacing near their 22 held when it counted; Toulon’s last-pass accuracy did not.
Individuals carried weight. Hastoy’s 11 points felt like authority as much as arithmetic. Nowell worked both ends — nine tackles out wide to go with his finish. Ulupano Seuteni and Matthias Haddad led the defensive graft in the traffic, while Pierre Bourgarit emptied the tank before the hooker change. For Toulon, Serin’s spark around the ruck was their sharpest weapon and his try came off that feel for tempo. Jones was their primary gain-line threat, and Ludlam’s output suggested the balance in the back row is close. But the backfield was mixed: Jaminet was dangerous with ball in hand yet loose without it, and Toulon never quite turned their kicking returns into repeatable territory gains.
Does the margin flatter La Rochelle? If you play the stat sheet, yes. Toulon produced more line breaks, more front-foot ball and a lower missed-tackle count. But you don’t win for looking lively between the 10s. You win by stacking points and surviving the last twenty. La Rochelle did both. Toulon didn’t.
Context matters in September. La Rochelle, remodelled up front and coming off a tight opening-round win, have banked back-to-back results built on resilience and bench impact. They’ll know the missed tackles and early-doors discipline can’t persist, but two tight wins to start a long season is exactly the habit they want. Toulon, after a one-point loss last week and another here, have a clear brief: tidy the breakdown, value the ball, and be ruthless off line breaks. The shape is there; the finishing and decision-making are not. Until that sharpens, they’ll keep walking off with losing bonuses and the feeling they left the real prize behind.
The real takeaway is simple. La Rochelle have a closing game they trust, even when the tackle count climbs and the clock slows. Toulon have the means to stress anyone, but until their accuracy matches their ambition in the red zone, nights like this will keep slipping away.
