Toulon rout Glasgow to win Challenge Cup final after Serin’s sizzling start

Glasgow’s dream of becoming the first Scottish team to secure a major European rugby title was comprehensively shattered in Dublin on Friday by a Toulon side who claimed their own little slice of history. The French club had lost all four of their previous Challenge Cup finals but ran in six tries in a comfortable win over below-par opponents who only spluttered into life late on.

Even the early loss of a dazed Dan Biggar could not throw Toulon off the scent, with French scrum-half Baptiste Serin contributing 16 points and the soon-to-retire Sergio Parisse, now 39, scoring a valedictory try. Glasgow did their best to recover after going 21-0 down inside the first 25 minutes but never looked like conjuring an improbable comeback on what was, atmosphere wise, a disappointingly low-key evening. Aside from a brace of second-half tries for captain Kyle Steyn and another consolation effort for Sebastián Cancelliere, Glasgow could make relatively few inroads and the final margin could have been wider.

It brought a triumphant end to Toulon’s long list of previous disappointments in this competition. Starting with Cardiff in 2010 they had also finished runners-up behind Biarritz, Bristol and Lyon, most recently in Marseille last year. As a club more often associated with winning a hat-trick of European Cups between 2013 and 2015, it was a habit they were visibly keen to kick.

They also had plenty of players more than accustomed to the biggest stage. Charles Ollivon has captained France, Parisse has led Italy and Biggar has skippered Wales. The latter, though, was jogging back down the tunnel after only four minutes, having taken a high blow in the early seconds. He was reluctant to go off but it would have been a dereliction of