The Ulster head coach, Neil Doak, was bullish in defeat after opponents Toulon came away 23-13 winners at the Kingspan Stadium. “The first two games were pretty difficult,” he said in reference to their defeat against the French side, who scored tries through Bryan Habana and Delon Armitage and had 13 points from the boot of Leigh Halfpenny, and their opening reverse at Leicester. “But we’ve got four games still to go and the potential to pick up 20 points in that.
“Obviously we’ve got to go away to Toulon and that’s going to be a pretty tough ask. I suppose after the Tigers it makes it disappointing that we didn’t come out better than that. But it’s a long season and we’ll just have to keep digging in and we’ve got to pick ourselves up.”
The Toulon captain, Carl Hayman, was clearly delighted with bagging the away win and the position it now puts his side in. “There are not a lot of teams that come here and win, and for us to come here and get a victory, we’re really happy,” he said.
Glasgow followed last week’s win over Bath by beating Montpellier 15-13 at Stade de la Mosson. All of the visitors’ points came from the boot of Finn Russell, and a last-gasp penalty try from the hosts was too late to spark a dramatic turnaround.
In the Challenge Cup, Cardiff Blues came away from Italian side Rovigo with a 33-18 win, making it two victories in a row. Luciano Rodriguez put the home side ahead with an early try, which was then converted, but two tries from Gethin Jenkins and another by Josh Turnbull put the Welsh side in command. Manoa Vosowai and Macauley Cook followed suit before Jean-François Montauriol scored a consolation.
There was a straightforward home win for Exeter, who beat Connacht 33-13 to go top of pool two. Three first-half tries put the Chiefs in a commanding position and they added two more after the break, Fionn Carr going over with a reply for the visitors – who could not repeat last week’s win over La Rochelle.
The Wasps captain and England flanker James Haskell has been discharged from hospital after his state improved following a viral infection. A club statement said that he will “continue to rest up at home this week before a gradual re-introduction to England training”.