O'Connor, Toulon hold off late Pau rally
Title contenders Toulon recovered from last week's chastening defeat at Toulouse with a nervy 21-17 victory at home to Pau in the French Top 14 on Sunday.
Wallaby wing James O'Connor scored tries in both halves with Georgian lock Konstantin Mikautadze also crossing for Toulon, while full-back Tom Taylor added a pair of penalties.
However, the three-time reigning European champions were forced to stave off a late Pau comeback inspired by World Cup-winning All Blacks pair Conrad Smith and Colin Slade as the visitors scored 14 unanswered points only to fall just short.
With three pivotal European Champions Cup games, two against Bath and a home tie with Wasps, to come later this month, it was a welcome win that pushed Toulon back up to fourth as Pau claimed a losing bonus point.
Toulon, routed 31-8 at Toulouse last time out, fell behind early as fly-half Slade sent over a third-minute penalty for Pau, who entered the weekend in 11th place.
But Taylor, another ex-New Zealand international, responded moments later with a penalty of his own to level at 3-3.
Toulon struggled initially to make much of an impact against a dogged Pau defence, but the hosts broke through on 25 minutes as Australian fly-half Quade Cooper released O'Connor out wide to go over for the opening try.
Taylor increased the home side's lead with another penalty after Julien Jacquot was sin-binned, but Toulon also went down to 14 just before the break as Cooper was yellow-carded.
O'Connor had a hand in Toulon's second try on 50 minutes as his offload allowed Mikautadze to touch down, before the Australian added another try five minutes later, only for Taylor to again miss the conversion.
But Smith gave Pau hope as the centre evaded three Toulon players, including long-time All Black team-mate Ma'a Nonu, to score his first try for his new club, with Slade converting.
Smith and Nonu played 62 games together for New Zealand before switching to France after their 2015 World Cup triumph, so this was their first head-to-head in the Top 14.
The visitors ensured it was a nerve-wracking final few minutes as they were awarded a penalty when Toulon, forced to see out the final 10 minutes a man down with Anthony Etrillard in the sin bin, collapsed the scrum.
Later, third-placed Toulouse take on struggling defending champions Stade Francais in Paris knowing that a win would see them return to the summit.