Taulupe Faletau knee injury adds to Todd Blackadder's fury at referee after Bath suffer defeat in Toulon

Taulupe Faletau, the Bath No 8, faces an anxious wait to determine how severely his knee ligaments are damaged after suffering injury in the Champions Cup defeat to Toulon. 

The Lions and Wales star will almost certainly miss the return fixture at the Rec on Saturday according to a grim-faced Todd Blackadder, the director of rugby. Faletau twice damaged his knee ligaments last season missing three months in total. A similar lay-off could put Faletau’s participation in next year’s Six Nations in doubt. 

The incident occurred in the 49th minute of a bruising contest when Faletau was cleared out of a ruck by Mathieu Bastareaud, the centre. Blackadder was upset that Bastareaud came through the side of a ruck to clear out Faletau. “It looks like there’s a ruck and he came from the side and tweaked the knee,” Blackadder said. “It doesn’t look good for next week anyway.”

That was not the only reason Bath had to feel aggrieved. Toulon’s first try, scored by Ma’a Nonu, seemed to involve some fairly blatant crossing by prop Florian Fresia. Referee Andrew Brace, who also drew Blackadder’s ire for his lack of consistency at the breakdown, chose not to seek to involve the television match official, despite captain Matt Garvey’s best efforts. “It is a difficult one because you don’t want to push the referee to the point of annoyance so you are out of favour,” Garvey said. “Those were questions I was asking. I thought we had a good relationship but you can only ask referees so much before you start to lose them.

Blackadder put it more bluntly. “The TMO is there to look at those things,” he said. “That’s absolutely what he is there for. What it would have hurt to have had a look? The technology is there, let’s use it.”

Even if the officials had the perfect game, defeat would still have stung. Bath led for 53 minutes of an absorbing contest that was settled by Anthony Belleau’s opportunistic try four minutes from time. Even if Toulon are not the force they once were, they remain a formidable scalp, particularly at the Stade Mayol where only Saracens have emerged victorious in Champions Cup competition. 

This is not the first time that Bath have come close having lost 12-9 and 14-19 to the three-time champions last season. As Blackadder said, the losing bonus point, which leaves them three points behind Toulon in Pool 5, means they are still in charge of their own destiny, yet there is no doubting how much the whole team viewed this as a missed opportunity.

“I don’t think we could get closer to winning than we did,” Garvey said. “It was pretty emotional after the game. We spoke to the boys in the huddle and it was pretty bitter out there. I thought we had it. The workrate the boys put in was outstanding and to come so close when you play well is tough. At the same time, it gives a lot of encouragement for next week.”

There were a number of turning points in the game, from Brace’s failure to properly penalise Francois Trinh-Duc’s deliberate knock-on to Facundo Isa’s intercept of Kahn Foutali’i’s pass, both when Bath were in the red zone. The otherwise excellent Rhys Priestland also missed a couple of key kicks to touch. 

Yet the moment that will live longest in the memory is that of Chris Ashton’s wayward, sliced clearance under his own posts that dropped into the hands of Jonathan Joseph. Ashton later posted a picture of him and Joseph together in a bar with the caption, “he owes me a drink.”