Toulon …………36
Benetton ……..27
TOULON will face London Irish in the semi-finals after they comfortably beat Benetton to book their place in the final four.
Benetton opened the scoring early on through a penalty by Rhyno Smith but the home side responded as fly-half Louis Carbonel produced a beautiful flat pass for French winger Gabin Villiere to run on to and score a converted try under the posts.
Toulon turned down a kickable penalty in favour of going to the corner and their aggressive attack was rewarded when captain Charles Ollivon broke through to score.
On the stroke of halftime Carbonel scored his first penalty of the match before things went from bad to worse for Benetton as Nahuel Tetaz was yellow carded but Carbonel's subsequent penalty went wide of the posts.
Benetton would have felt hard done by at the start of the second half as they appeared to have scored a try through Tomas Albornoz but the TMO overturned the decision as he didn't believe the ball was grounded.
The Italians' bright start to the second half was rewarded as Tommaso Menoncello went through under the posts to make it a one-score game with a converted try.
Benetton drew level as Monty Ioane intercepted Carbonel's pass on halfway and raced over for their second try but four consecutive penalties from Carbonel punished Benetton's ill-discipline and Jules Coulon touched down in the dying seconds to seal the win.
TEAMS
TOULON: Luc, Villiere, Smaili, Paia'Aua, Kolbe, Carbonel, Blanc; Gros, Tolofua, Gigashvili, Etzebeth, Rebbadj, Isa, Ollivon, Parisse
Replacements: Etrillard, Fresia, Brookes, Alainu'uese, Coulon, Wainiqolo, Belleau, Danglot
BENETTON: Smith, Padovani, Brex, Menoncello, Ioane, Albornoz, Duvenage; Gallo, Nicotera, Chaparro, Herbst, Ruzza, Negri, Lamaro, Halafihi
Replacements: Els, Nemer, Pasquali, Cannone, Pettinelli, Garbisi, Marin, Riera
REFEREE: Karl Dickson (Eng)
