Toulon's French flanker Charles Ollivon (L) fends off Stormers' South African fly-half Jurie Matthee's tackle during the European Rugby Champions Cup round of 16 rugby union match, between the Rugby Club Toulonnais (RCT) and the Stormers (Western Province) at the Stade Mayol in Toulon on April 4, 2026. (Photo by Clement MAHOUDEAU / AFP)
Stormers boss John Dobson conceded that while the manner of their defeat to Toulon was “very frustrating”, with several tough refereeing decisions going against them, a final score at the death would have been more than the Cape side deserved.
The Stormers lost their Champions Cup last-16 match 28-27 at Stade Mayol on Saturday.
The South Africans stayed in touch of the French side throughout the game, even leading twice despite having far less possession and territory.
They gained momentum in the final 10 minutes when Toulon went down to 14 and 13 men, but that was when hard 50/50 calls all went Toulon’s way.
Tough calls go against Stormers
Prop Ntuthuko Mchunu appeared to score from a drive, but referee Christophe Ridley referred it to the TMO, who ruled a knock-on. Later, a Stormers maul was cynically collapsed near the Toulon line, but Ridley awarded only a penalty and yellow card to Matthias Halagahu, rather than a penalty try.
In the final minute, after regaining possession following a Toulon yellow card for head contact, several Stormers drives resulted in lock Adré Smith crashing over. Ridley referred the incident to the TMO, with an initial view that the ball had been held up.
The TMO could neither confirm that it was held up nor that it was grounded, resulting in a no-try decision.
The Stormers also complained that Toulon loose forward Charles Ollivon was offside in the build-up, but the referee ruled he was behind the try line at the point of the pick-up.
‘I believe Adré got it down’
“We have to adapt to some of the EPCR interpretations,” Dobson said. “In the URC, which is our day job, if you run into the line like that and the maul gets pulled down it is clearly a penalty try. But not in the EPCR.
“We’re obviously a bit frustrated at the end there.”
Still, he said if the TMO could not confirm a grounding and the on-field decision “was for some reason no try, then it’s entirely logical and fair”.
“What’s frustrating for us and our players is that Charles Ollivon is clearly inside the field of play on the ground before we actually do get the ball. I believe Adré [Smith] got it down but I can understand why they didn’t award it.
“A very frustrating way for the game to end, but it would have been a bit of an escape given the position we put ourselves in.”
He explained that the Stormers did not deserve to win, having let Toulon back into the game with a soft try when 20-14 up. He said the Cape side also failed to adapt to Toulon’s stack attacks and deep attacks out wide in the first half.
“We would have loved to have won this game, but we weren’t quite good enough in a couple of areas.
“We are used to getting much more dominance in the scrums and this was a bit more of a mess.”
He said attention now turned to the United Rugby Championship, where the Stormers are second on the log with four games to go until knockouts. Their next match is at home against Connacht on 18 April.
