Top 14 Barrage Highlights: Toulon v Lyon
Top 14 Barrage Highlights: Toulon v Lyon

Lyon progress to their first Top14 semi-final after a thrilling 102 minutes of rugby. Although they were not able to beat Toulon they progress due to the fact that they scored 2 tries compared to Toulon's 1. Anthony Belleau failed to convert an early penalty while Lyon survived an early Toulon onslaught and opened the scoring through Mike Harris in the 23rd minute. Ma'a Nonu stole the ball brilliantly in his own half soon after and did well to set up a certain try for Chris Ashton who failed to gather the ball and dot down in what proved to be a costly mistake. Harris extended Lyon's lead not long after Ashton's mistake. With under 5 minutes left to play in the half Lyon captain, Julien Puricelli was yellow carded for a high tackle and Anthony Belleau closed the gap with a penalty that saw Toulon trail by just 3 points at the break.



 
Toulon enjoyed a lively start to the second half and Semi Radradra went over in the corner for a superb try but it was ruled out as the winger placed the ball just short of the line. Belleau tied the game 6-6 in the 49th minute of the game. Chris Ashton did get his name on the score sheet following yet another piece of brilliance by Ma'a Nonu. Lyon struck back immediately through Toby Arnold. It took another 5 minutes for Lyon to regain the lead when Dylan Cretin found a gap in the Toulon defence to race away for a try which Michael Harris failed to convert.
 
The game went into extra time with the scores leveled 16 all and Toulon went ahead in the opening minutes of extra time through a Francois Trinh-Duc penalty. Ma'a Nonu was yellow carded minutes later for a tackle with no-arms. Mike Harris leveled the scores 19 all with 7 minutes left to play and Lyon held on to go through to their first TOP14 semifinal.

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