A star-studded Bristol Bears side will travel to France this weekend to take on European powerhouses, Toulon, in the European Rugby Challenge Cup final.
The English side head into this one as heavy favourites with the books but they’ll need to be on the ball as Toulon are classy operators who know how to win Grand Finals.
Toulon v Bristol Bears
Friday 16 October
Stade Maurice-David
21:00
To Win (80 Mins)
Toulon 11/20
Draw 20/1
Bristol 15/10
Handicap
Toulon
Bristol
*Handicap to be added on release
Toulon
Toulon won’t have too much travelling to do as they are only one hour drive away from Aix-en-Province and the Stade Maurice-David. This will definitely count in their favour as Bristol will have to jump through multiple COVID inforced hurdles to get to the ground.
The Top 14 club enjoyed a solid Challenge Cup pool phase as they went unbeaten in Pool 2 which featured Scarlets, Bayonne and London Irish. They followed this impressive pool phase campaign up with a grinding 11-6 quarter-final win over the Scarlets and then an impressive 34-19 semi-final win over the Leicester Tigers.
In terms of Toulon’s recent form, the mega-rich club have been in decent enough touch over the past two weeks bouncing back from a 20 point defeat to Toulouse by beating Montpellier 25-21 this past weekend.
Bristol
The Bristol Bears will be looking to put the heartbreak of their 47-24 Gallagher Premiership semi-final defeat to Wasps behind them as they go in search of silverware this Friday evening.
Like Toulon, the Bears went undefeated in the pool phase of the Challenge Cup as they topped Pool 4 with five wins and one draw. It must be noted that they had a rather simple pool, however, which featured a struggling Stade Francis side as well as Italian minnows Zebre and French side Brive.
While their opponents head into this one off the back of a domestic win, the Bears suffered a defeat at the hands of Wasps. They had been in decent touch the week prior, though, as they ended the Gallagher Premiership round-robin phase with a 7-36 win over London Irish.
Verdict: Bristol 11/20
I think we could be in for a real classic here as both teams are capable of turning on the magic. While I reckon the Bears will win it, I don’t think it’ll be by more than eight points so any handicap in excess of eight should be backed on the plus.
