Carl Hayman has tipped Toulon to continue dominating the Champions Cup after helping the French giants to an unprecedented third straight European title.
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The former All Blacks prop will retire this summer, along with World Cup-winners Ali Williams and Bakkies Botha – but backed Toulon to ride out a number of squad changes.
Drew Mitchell’s stunning score helped Toulon edge past Clermont 24-18 at Twickenham yesterday to claim the inaugural Champions Cup crown and their third consecutive European title.
Hayman admitted he can retire happy this summer after making European history, then insisted Toulon will not rest on their laurels.
Well done Toulon. Better side in the final @ChampionsCup – just a tad sorry Brock James didn’t get his chance at the title.
— Will Greenwood (@WillGreenwood) May 2, 2015
“I think they can do it again next year: we’re seeing the club’s recruited very well for next season,” said Hayman. “There are three or four older fellas moving on, but they are being replaced well.
“It will be up to the guys who are staying to move things forward and continue on what the guys have started here over the last four or five years. I think being the third victory, it’s an even greater feeling.
“It’s such a difficult competition, especially now with the pools being reduced, it’s a lot harder. So it’s a third time, and that will be extremely rare.
“Teams now have bigger budgets; teams are getting more competitive and more balanced throughout the competition. So it’s going to continue to get harder and harder as the years go on. But I know Toulon can keep doing it.
“To win a third title like that, it was a hell of a tough game. But it’s credit to our group of guys that we stuck at it. I think it shows the quality of our group, we’ve got some pretty old heads in there but we’ve got some other guys who’ve contributed as well.”
Former Bath full-back Nick Abendanon claimed a scintillating chip-and-chase try as Clermont battled for an unlikely second-half comeback – but it was his error just before half-time that cost his side victory.
His misjudged chipped kick handed Toulon a try through Mathieu Bastareaud, and Clermont never recovered.
“We are pretty devastated, I should have kicked that ball out at the end of the first half which cost us,” said Abendanon. “We felt like we were in the game until the final whistle went. I felt we were going to break their wall but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”
