Tue 29 Apr 2014 | 11:06
Toulon aiming to defend title after tense semi final win over Munster

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Comments

Jonny Wilkinson kicked six penalties and a drop goal to help Toulon keep their dream of successive Heineken Cup titles alive as they beat Munster 24-16 in a tense battle in Marseilles on Sunday. Munster scored the only try of the game, through Simon Zebo.

Former England star Wilkinson helped the French side reach the Cardiff final, where they will face Saracens at the Millennium Stadium on 24 May. He kicked 21 points, while Delon Armitage added a massive penalty kick from about 55m out.

Toulon are now on track for a European and domestic double, and a chance of becoming the third side to ever successfully defend the title. Leicester and Leinster are the other two who did it before.

"It was a hell of a game and we were in danger everywhere on the field," said Wilkinson.

"A five point lead was never going to be enough and even eight was tight - Munster were relentless and kept going at us. We've heard nothing but good stuff about Saracens. They are top of the Aviva Premiership and are consistent week in, week out.

"To beat Clermont Auvergne with a scoreline like that is incredible – it’s normally the other way round with them. We have an enormous amount of respect for them."

He is now on 100 points for the season, and on course to better the 108 he totalled last season.

The final will feature a great match up between Wilkinson and Owen Farrell. Should the match be tied and go through extra time, with both teams having scored the same amount of tries, it will go to a place kicking penalty shoot-out contest, as it did in the 2009 semi final.

8 Comments

  • rugby08
    5:05 AM 02/05/2014

    Yea if you want a good example of highlights have a look at the premiership rugby tv website in the highlights section. Around 10 minutes each but show everything important and most of the time not even the kicks!

  • ando
    5:37 AM 30/04/2014

    Nothing more boring than watching a highlight reel full of kicks at goal. Rugbydump I love you guys, but can you please include footage of what led to the penalty rather than just the (boring) kick itself? Thanks!

  • themull
    11:02 PM 29/04/2014

    Yea I was shocked that once the good angle of the grounding was shown that it was only shown that once and was actually immediately switched...

    To those interested the grounding occurs at about 1:11-1:13 in this video...

    Regarding the match..Toulon are just too good a side for Munster to have been making such amateurish mistakes like they did in that first half...Absolutely horrendous knock ons killed them in the first half> If they ever had any hope of winning those 6 points gifted to Toulon straight after scoring two penalties of tehir own sealed their fate..They played extremely well for portions of the match but were outplayed for large portions also...If it wasn't for that amazing try saving tackle by Zebo at the beginning of the second half it could have been over then and there I think..

  • reality
    8:17 PM 29/04/2014

    I think the reason nobody thinks it was scored is because of the incompetence of the camera crew and their director. They just didn't show replays of important events unless they were asked to, particularly when Munster stood to gain from them, e.g. the try and the Conor Murray injury incident.

    When a try is scored the standard practice is to immediately get up all the replays possible but instead they just showed that one bad angle about twice and then ages later a quick shot of the good angle. Then, if a player goes down mysteriously injured the first thing the director should be doing is getting a replay up but Wayne Barnes actually had to ask for it.

    Whoever the director is should really be sacked for at best imcompetence and at worst providing biased imaging in order to influence the referee.

  • guy
    7:48 PM 29/04/2014

    I can't even remotely imagine what rugby without Wilkinson will be like. I hope the best team will win. And for his sake I hope it will be Toulon.

  • themull
    7:18 PM 29/04/2014

    There was an angle which was shown once which clearly shows that Zebo touches the ball down..And even if there wasn't a camera angle to show it, the touch judge was sure he got it down so why bother going to the TMO...The tmo may not have been able to find an angle where it showed the ball being grounded, but the touch judge himself said he seen it grounded..Why risk it not being awarded when you are sure it was legitimate try...

  • welshosprey
    6:31 PM 29/04/2014

    Can't wait for Stuart Barnes to jizz himself over Wilkinson v Farrell
    Brace yourselves for MASTER V APPRENTICE

  • 4lc4tr4z
    4:25 PM 29/04/2014

    Good guy Barnes for not asking the TMO on that ghost try...