Montpellier booked a place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals for the first time with a 23-3 victory over Toulon at the Stade Yves du Manoir on Saturday.

Tries from Thomas Combezou and Benoit Paillaugue, who converted both and also booted three penalties, gave the home side the victory they knew before the game would assure them of an historic place in the last eight.

Jonny Wilkinson opened the scoring with an early penalty for Toulon, but Combezou crossed for the game's first try in the eighth minute to put Montpellier in the ascendancy. Paillaugue added the extras and punished Toulon with three penalties in an eight-minute spell midway through the half.

Delon Armitage was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle six minutes before half-time, and although Toulon withstood Montpellier pressure during his absence from the pitch, it was not long after his return that the hosts scored again.

Paillaugue darted through to dot down in the 48th minute and with Wilkinson missing two kicks late in the game there was never any danger of a Toulon fightback.

Toulon's first defeat in Pool 6 did not prove costly, though, as they finished top and Montpellier took second place, certain to be one of the two best pool runners-up advancing to the quarter-final stage.