Saracens became the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals with a bonus-point victory over Lyon and they will secure the position of top seeds if they defeat Glasgow at Allianz Park on Saturday.
Glasgow will be playing for a place in the knockout stage after picking up five points against Cardiff Blues. They will secure it on Friday night if Montpellier lose in Edinburgh but a home quarter-final will be at stake against Saracens, who were at their efficient best in France.
Exeter keep slim Champions Cup hopes alive with win over Castres
Lyon had no chance of making the last eight but they took the game to Saracens immediately. They looked to thwart Saracens’ blitz defence by getting the ball wide and enjoyed some success with all their three-quarters making ground, but the scrambling defence of the Premiership champions, led by Schalk Burger, was exceptional.
Lyon’s head coach, Pierre Mignoni, reacted with disgust when Jonathan Wisniewski gave the home side the lead with a 25-metre drop goal, but a series of phases had failed to put a crack in the defensive wall. For all the energy of the Top 14 side, they lacked the calculation of their opponents which changed the game in the second quarter.
Owen Farrell had tested the Lyon full-back Toby Arnold with two high kicks and sensed vulnerability. A third was duly spilled, although replays suggested Alex Lewington had knocked it forward, and when Saracens moved the ball left and drove hard through their forwards, Nick Tompkins took advantage of the prop Francisco Gómez Kodela lurking without intent in midfield and surged past him for the first of his two tries.
Burger got away with a dangerous clear-out on Deon Fourie in the final ruck before the try and the flanker was not penalised at the end of the half when he went high on the wing Alexis Palisson before dropping lower to dislodge the ball and prevent a try before half-time.
Saracens were by then 14-3 ahead and there was nothing contentious about their second try, which came from a line-out. Billy Vunipola’s long, flat pass allowed Tompkins to reach the gainline and, when Vunipola took out defenders at the ruck, his brother Mako’s inside pass allowed Jackson Wray to run into the space the No 8 had created.
Tompkins sealed victory two minutes after the restart when he joined in a driving maul following a penalty that was kicked to touch and had the strength to break through three tackles. Saracens settled into a counterattacking game, absorbing pressure, forcing mistakes and using the pace and vision of Alex Goode to turn defence into attack.
Goode created the bonus-point try after Lyon’s most sustained attacking period of the afternoon. When the home side found space it was quickly closed down and after the ball was spilled, Goode skipped out of two tackles and set off from his own 10-metre line.
Rhys Priestland’s kick snatches victory for Bath from Wasps’ grasp
He had the replacement scrum-half Ben Spencer in support and timed his pass so that the last defender, the tighthead prop Kévin Yameogo, was exposed. Both teams were at that point down to 14 men; Maro Itoje was in the sin-bin for a marginal offside call after the referee had warned Saracens about the number of penalties they were giving away, along with the home prop Albertus Buckle, who saw yellow for stamping on the leg of Will Skelton and then repeating the action with a twist.
Lyon scored the final try of the game through the effervescent Palisson but their first European Cup campaign has been a sobering one with sides like Saracens leaving nothing to chance.