French teams pick up away wins

There were away wins for Toulon and Toulouse over Ulster and Bath respectively in the day's early European Champions Cup clashes.

Toulon lost Juan Mártin Fernández Lobbe and Matt Giteau to injury but still had enough in reserve to beat Ulster 23-13 at the Kingspan Stadium in Pool Three.

A Bryan Habana try on the stroke of half-time from the visitors put them 16-3 ahead after a more or less even first half and they were far too clinical for Ulster in the second period.

Delon Armitage scored an interception try before a late Craig Gilroy score for Ulster did nothing more than give Ulster a sniff of a losing bonus point, which they eventually fell short of when Ian Humphreys missed a long-range penalty in the final action of the match.

Leigh Halfpenny and Paddy Jackson traded early penalties before two more Halfpenny kicks extended Toulon's lead despite them losing Lobbe and Giteau inside the first 20 minutes.

And after Armitage had a try disallowed following a Halfpenny forward pass, Toulon responded in perfect style when a superb offload from man-of-the-match Chris Masoe put Habana in at the corner.

A bruising battle at the breakdown was largely won by Toulon and although Ulster enjoyed plenty of possession, they came up against a brick wall in defence and Armitage raced clear to put Toulon on the clear.

Ulster mounted a stirring late charge and after Gilroy crossed, Habana was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on but Humphrey's miss from the resultant penalty meant Ulster still took nothing from the game.

Bath's quarter-final hopes took a huge blow at the Recreation Ground after they were beaten 21-19 by a Toulouse side that showcased some deadly finishing in Pool Four.

After losing heavily to Glasgow last week, a win for Bath was essential but they could not deliver and were downed by tries from Vincent Clerc, Imanol Harinordoquy and Maxime Medard. Conversions from Toby Flood (two) and Luke McAllister wrapped up a two-point win.

Bath fly-half George Ford kicked three penalties, a drop goal and converted substitute Ross Batty's late try but all they took was a losing bonus point.

Clerc's score was his 36th in European competition and it put Toulouse 7-3 up after an early Ford penalty.

Bath hit back through Ford's drop goal and there was a single point in it at the break.

They went ahead after the break with Ford's second penalty before Toulouse made substitutions to freshen their side up and immediately scored through Harinordoquy, which Flood converted.

Ford landed another penalty to keep Bath within range only for Toulouse to move the ball left and set up Medard to cross for a try that McAllister converted.

That looked to have wrapped up the points but Bath kept fighting and Batty crashed over before Ford's conversion set up a frantic finale.

However, Toulouse held firm to make it two wins from two.