Toulon vs Saracens match report: Mark McCall's men inflict first home Champions Cup defeat on Top 14 side

Toulon 23 Saracens 31: Owen Farrell helped the Premiership champions make a fantastic start to their European campaign

Farrell celebrates Saracens' victory at full-time (Getty)

Man of the match Owen Farrell kicked 16 points as Saracens rattled up three first-half tries and hung on with a mix of style and indomitable will to end former champions Toulon’s proud unbeaten home record in the European Champions Cup.

It may only have been the opening match of this season's Pool Three but the significance for the rest of the tournament was clear as England's reigning champions laid down a fabulous marker in the south of the France.

And it was yet another “pinch me, I must be dreaming” afternoon for anyone who has followed Saracens from their amateur days on a public-park pitch to these gala occasions on the continent.

Saracens’ third try, scored by Chris Wyles just before half-time, was a beautiful team effort, with great changes of angles to keep the flow going as Mako Vunipola, Owen Farrell and Marcelo Bosch cleaved the Toulon defence apart.

It ended with Maro Itoje sending Wyles in at the left corner, and Farrell added the conversion for an interval lead of 25-6.

We are gradually appreciating the scale of what Jonny Wilkinson used to offer the Toulon team, before their English hero retired from playing in 2014.

The following season, the Cote d’Azur club collected their third straight European Cup titles with Australia’s Matt Giteau as the guiding hand on the tiller.

Maitland goes over for the first try of the match (Getty)

But Giteau was unavailable through injury in this match, and the clearest wisdom and control at No.10 came from an Englishman wearing the red and black of Saracens – the 25-year-old Farrell.

It was his seven penalty goals that steered Sarries to their first European triumph in last May’s 21-9 final win over another French club, Racing 92, in Lyons.

After not playing since the England tour in Australia in June, due to back and hip problems, Farrell could be forgiven the odd kicking wobble on his season's debut but he landed four out of five in the first half, missing only the conversion of scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth’s try from Jamie George’s line-break after 13 minutes.

Scotland back Sean Maitland, whose summer signing has been even handier since the suspension to Chris Ashton, had grabbed the visiting team’s opening try with a smart finish in the corner in the ninth minute, as Ma’a Nonu and Leigh Halfpenny converged on him.

Welsh kicking ace Halfpenny popped over a couple of penalties – the second of them for a high tackle by Itoje – in his first European match since the winning final against Clermont Auvergne 17 months ago.

But as Toulon trailed 25-6 at half-time, the threat to their home record in this tournament was obvious. As was the possibility of a first European win by English opposition at the Stade Mayol since Bristol in the Challenge Cup in January 2009.

Toulon’s “galacticos” fell to Racing 92 in both the Champions Cup quarter-finals and the French Top 14 final last season.

They are currently fourth in the Top 14 with four wins and a draw from eight matches, while Saracens are top of the English Premiership, and on this evidence clearly operating on a higher level than the club who dominated Europe not so long ago.

But if the visitors thought they might be facing a spent force, the remaining 40 minutes suggested otherwise.

Halfpenny kicked his third penalty three minutes into the second half before Nonu’s slapdash tip tackle on Brad Barritt cost the former All Black centre a trip to the sin bin and Farrell restored Saracens’ 19-point lead.

Habana crosses the line at the Stade Mayol for the hosts (Getty)

In turn, Itoje was shown a yellow card for a blatant piece of ball-killing as Toulon battered at the Saracens goalline for a try by Georgian prop Levan Chilachava converted by Halfpenny – although it needed multiple phases and barrel-loads of effort to achieve it.

While Itoje was off, Nonu returned from the bin and gave a sumptuous long pass to free Bryan Habana for a try to mark the eminent Springbok’s first club appearance of the season, and Halfpenny, who was faultless from the kicking tee, added the conversion again.

Farrell’s brilliant penalty touch kick came to nothing from the resulting line-out, and Nonu’s stunning break drew a yellow-card offence by a scrambling Saracens’ own star Springbok, Schalk Burger.

As the minutes ticked away and Saracens gratefully gained a foothold in Toulon territory, Maitland almost had a madcap second try, as Barritt’s grubber bounced off the corner flag into the shins of the chasing wing.

The greatest relief came in the 78th minute as Habana dabbled round the side of a ruck and Farrell’s fourth and final penalty for Sarries stripped their illustrious hosts of the minor consolation of the losing bonus point.

“We don’t talk about records,” said Billy Vunipola, Saracens’ England No.8, “but Toulon have got a rich history and for us to take away that mantle is huge credit to the boys.

“It was a great atmosphere and a great crowd, and we gave away a lot of silly errors but you can’t be on top the whole match, and we were great, the way we stuck in there.”

Toulon: Tries: Chilachava, Habana; Conversions: Halfpenny 2; Penalties: Halfpenny 3.

Saracens: Tries: Maitland, Wigglesworth, Wyles; Conversions: Farrell 2; Penalties: Farrell 4.

Toulon: L Halfpenny; J Tuisova (rep E Escande, 65 mins), M Carraro (M Bastareaud 55), M Nonu (sin bin 46), B Habana; F Trinh-Duc, S Tillous-Borde (P Bernard 72); F Fresia (X Chiocci 16-20, 52), G Guirado (J-C Orioli 68), L Chilachava (M Saulo 68), S Manoa (R Taofifenua 51), M Gorgodze, C Ollivon, J Fernandez Lobbe (L Gill 77), D Vermeulen (capt) .

Saracens: A Goode; S Maitland, M Bosch, B Barritt (capt; A Lozowski 77), C Wyles; O Farrell, R Wigglesworth (B Spencer 65-70); M Vunipola, J George (S Brits 51), J Figallo (P du Plessis 51), M Itoje (sin bin 54; J Hamilton 78), G Kruis, J Wray (M Rhodes 16-20, 58), S Burger (sin bin 72), B Vunipola.

Referee: J Lacey (Ireland).