Munster slipped to a second Champions Cup, defeat after going down 27-25 away to Toulon in pool two.
Jack Crowley put Munster in front with two penalty kicks, but they were reduced to 14 men in the 36th minute when Tadhg Beirne was sent to the sin bin.
Toulon responded just before the break as Marius Domon crossed before converting his own effort to give them a one-point advantage at half-time.
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Toulon were straight out of the blocks in the second half when Ben White touched down in the 43rd minute and Domon converted, but Munster responded three minutes later when a quick switch towards the right allowed Calvin Nash to ground in the corner and Crowley added the extras.
A chaotic start to the half continued as Gael Drean scored for Toulon in the 49th minute with a try under the posts and Domon converted, while Munster were frustrated further six minutes later when Alex Nankivell was shown a yellow card.
Esteban Abadie was then sin-binned for Toulon, who still extended their lead further with a Domon penalty. Jack O’Donoghue touched down for Munster after edging over the line, but Crowley missed the resulting conversion attempt.
Charles Ollivon saw yellow for the French side, allowing the visitors to capitalise as Tom Farrell went over and Crowley’s conversion sent them ahead, but Domon’s penalty with five minutes to play wrapped up the win for Toulon.
Meanwhile, in the Challenge Cup, Stuart Hogg kicked Montpellier to a 33-31 victory over Connacht as the French side clawed back a 17-point deficit to maintain their 100 per cent Pool 1 record.
Former Scottish international Stuart Hogg sealed a win for Montpelier against Stuart Lancaster’s Connacht in France (Jane Barlow/PA)
The hosts got off to the perfect start at the Septeo Stadium when centre Thomas Darmon went over early on, with Leo Coly adding the conversion, but it was all square by the 11th minute when scrum-half Ben Murphy touched down and Sam Gilbert obliged from the tee.
Tries from Lyam Akrab and Dylan Tierney-Martin, both of which were converted, made it 14-14 and it was the visitors who surged into a 24-14 lead courtesy of winger Finn Treacy’s effort and five more points from Gilbert’s boot.
Gilbert took his personal tally to 16 points when he crossed six minutes into the second half and added the two points, giving the Irish side a 17-point cushion.
However, winger Melvyn Rates and replacement scrum-half Alexis Bernadet touched down to give the hosts hope, setting up a grandstand finish during which prop Valentin Welsch scored under the posts to level it at 31-31.
That left Hogg with the simplest of tasks to kick a second successful conversion and secure a victory, which left Stuart Lancaster’s men with only two bonus points to show for their efforts.