Injured Flying Fijians winger Jiuta Wainiqolo, who made his return to the French Top 14 competition, snatched the late winner for 13-men RCT Toulon in their narrow 30-27 win over ASM Clermont today.
Fiji-born flyer Peceli Yato made a quick start to the match in favor of Clermont when he barged over the tryline to begin the proceedings and Benjamin Urdapilleta converted for a 7-0 lead.
Toulon regrouped and gave a harsh response through Noah Lolesio, author of a 100 per cent kick, opening the scoring with a penalty before Jules Coulon scored the first try for the side after a well-constructed maul.
Lolesio converted to give Toulon a 10-7 lead for the first time in the match.
ASM reacted quickly with a second try scored by Folau Fainga’a and Urdapilleta booted the conversion to put them back ahead 14-10.
Just before the break, Lolesio brought his team back to one one-point gap with a second penalty trailing 14-13.
The Toulonnais continued to have the ball and Lolesio began the second half as he finished the first, with a penalty while Coulon scored his second try after a crazy race making it easy for Lolesio to convert.
It was Urdapilleta, who brought Clermont back in the match with his first penalty while KilliaTixeront scored their third try under the post making it easy for Urdapilleta to convert between the sticks and again he slotted the second penalty for a 27-23 lead in the 71st minute.
In the remaining 10 minutes of the match, both sides were reduced to 13 players when Christopher Tolofua and Étienne Falgoux copped a yellow card each for foul plays on two different occasions.
A magnificent shift by Lolesio to Wainiqolo saw him crush through the heavy Clermont defense and give the advantage to the RCT a few minutes from the end of the match and Lolesio converted.
