The opening round of the 2025/26 Investec Champions Cup finished in a welter of excitement with Edinburgh beating Toulon 33-20 in a riveting encounter despite terrible weather conditions.

Little quality was expected given the relentless rain in the Scottish capital, but both teams defied this gloomy prediction and an end-to-end first half, which featured several spicy dust-ups, ended with the home side 18-17 ahead.

There was less space to exploit in the second half, but the intensity didn’t dip, and the result tipped Edinburgh’s way with a penalty try at the scrum midway through the half, with Toulon vulnerable following the yellow-carding of ex-England lock David Ribbans.

Capping off the hosts’ great night, their Springbok prop Boan Venter, whose influence at the scrum following his 56th-minute introduction was critical, then struck for the four-try bonus point on 74 minutes.

Snappy

The Sunday evening entertainment got going with Melvyn Jaminet landing a second-minute drop goal for the visitors, and they appeared to have taken a commanding position five minutes later when Ben White ghosted in for the converted try that secured a 10-0 lead.

Back in Scotland after last month’s international duty for Gregor Townsend’s Scotland, the scrum-half demonstrated his fast-twitch movement to break the defensive line with a dart from the back of a ruck after great work by his forwards.

Toulon, though, didn’t get to breathe in their lead as skipper Ribbans was penalised for a tackle on Pierre Schoeman that allowed Cammy Scott to kick penalty points.

The scores were then level on 15 minutes when Schoeman took advantage of Ewan Ashman’s break to grab the try that Scott converted for 10-all.

The exchanges continued to be snappy, and it was Toulon who struck next, with White scoring his second try, this time after a quickly taken tap penalty. Jaminet’s conversion made it 17-10, but he injured himself in the act of kicking and was taken off.

The margin was then cut to two points on 29 minutes when Edinburgh scrum-half Ben Vellacott grabbed a try, and while Scott missed the conversion, he was on target a few minutes later with a penalty kick for the 18-17 lead that his team took into the interval.

The hosts thought they had scored their third try eight minutes after the resumption when Darcy Graham went in at the corner following a counter-attack from Vellacott.

However, on review, referee Matthew Carley and his officiating team identified a knock-on when Graham contested a high kick from Paolo Garbisi before the Edinburgh attack began.

This decision instead left Edinburgh to settle for a 54th-minute penalty from Scott for their next score, a kick that Matéo Garcia soon responded to with an effort for Toulon.

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It was now, with the score at 21-20, that the match took a dramatic twist. Toulon skipper Ribbans was yellow-carded for hitting out at the nuisance of Liam McConnell, and the pressure of this numerical advantage resulted in a scrum-five for Edinburgh.

Minus Ribbans in their second row and scrummaging with just seven players, the Toulon scrum went in reverse, and Carley decided the ensuing infringement merited the penalty try that pushed Edinburgh 28-20 ahead.

Another scrum before Ribbans’ yellow expired resulted in a penalty kick that Scott was unable to hit the target with, but Edinburgh now had the bit between their teeth and sub prop Venter burrowed over six minutes from try to clinch his team’s four-try bonus point and seal their deserved win.

The teams

Edinburgh: 15 Harry Paterson, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Wes Goosen, 12 James Lang, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Cammy Scott, 9 Ben Vellacott, 8 Magnus Bradbury (c), 7 Dylan Richardson, 6 Liam McConnell, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Marshall Sykes, 3 Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman. Replacements 16 Harri Morris, 17 Boan Venter, 18 Paul Hill, 19 Glen Young, 20 Freddy Douglas, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 James Lang, 23 Piers O’Conor

Toulon: 15 Melvyn Jaminet, 14 Gaël Drean, 13 Nacho Brex, 12 Jérémy Sinzelle, 11 Mathis Ferte, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Ben White, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Esteban Abadie, 6 Lewis Ludlam, 5 Brian Alainu’uese, 4 David Ribbans (c), 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Teddy Baubigny, 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros. Replacements 16 Jeremy Toevalu, 17 Leo Ametlla, 18 Dany Priso, 19 Corentin Mezou, 20 Joe Quere Karaba, 21 Baptiste Serin, 22 Matéo Garcia, 23 Mathieu Smaili

Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)
Assistant Referees: Sara Cox (Eng), Greg MacDonald (Eng)
TMO: Daniel Jones (Eng)

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