Two tries from former England international Delon Armitage helped French and European champions Toulon go top of the Top 14 table on Sunday as they ran Grenoble ragged in a 61-28 thrashing.
Toulon, who outscored Grenoble nine tries to three though the match was tight till the hour mark, have a two point lead over Clermont and Stade Francais after the weekend action with the former losing their place at the top rung with a surprise defeat at Bayonne and the latter beating Bordeaux-Begles.
"This was revenge for last season when Grenoble beat us both at home and away," said one of Toulon's try scorers Jean-Charles Orioli.
"They play open rugby so it suited us to play our flowing style."
Toulon ran in three tries in the first-half to Grenoble's one but owing to a poor day with the boot by Argentinian kicker Nicolas Sanchez, getting his first start for the hosts, they led only 17-14 at the break.
Grenoble had gifted Toulon their first try as prop Alexandre Mennini charged down scrum-half Charl McLeod's poor clearance kick and touched down -- Sanchez missing the conversion and then going wide with a penalty.
Jonathan Wisniewski, formerly of Racing-Metro, converted a penalty for Grenoble to make it 5-3 but the visitors did themselves few favours in being reduced to 13 men at one point with centre Migel Hunt and Paul Willemse sin-binned.
Toulon, though, made little of this two-man advantage, scoring just the one try through Bakkies Botha, the conversion again missed by Sanchez, but looked to be at last drawing away when prop Levan Chilchava scored a try a minute before the break -- Sanchez for once landing a kick.
However, Grenoble had the last laugh of the half as Alipate Ratini broke through the centre of the Toulon defence and ran in the ball from 30 metres out -- Wisniewski went wide to leave the half-time score 17-14 in the hosts' favour.
Toulon came out guns blazing after the break, Sanchez landing a penalty and then Armitage rounding off a fine move orchestrated by Maxime Mermoz -- Sanchez sent his conversion wide.
Grenoble, though, refused to lie down and flanker Henry Vanderglas gratefully accepted a handling error by Drew Mitchell to run back and touch down under the posts from his halfway line -- Wisniewski converted to make it 25-21 with half an hour remaining.
Sanchez eased the pressure a little as he landed a penalty for 28-21 and on the hour mark replacement hooker Orioli went over from close in for their fifth try which the Argentinian converted for 35-21 and once again the offensive bonus point was in their possession.
Further tries by Juan Smith -- which was then followed by Grenoble's final try as Hunt produced a superb pass to release Robinson Caire -- the outstanding Mermoz, Armitage's second and one virtually on the hooter for Bryan Habana rounded off an ultimately highly satisfying afternoon for Bernard Laporte's team.
"The game was 20 minutes too long for us," said Wisniewski.
"What really killed us was being down to 13 men in the first-half and expending all that energy to stay in the game, as we then had nothing left at the end."
Source: AFP