YESTERDAY, TOULON ONCE again won European rugby’s greatest prize.
But the morning after their Champions Cup victory over French rivals Clermont at Twickenham, the Top 14 giants once again turned the attentions to the future.
And that future may include Paul O’Connell, if club owner Mourad Boudjellal has his way. The Ireland skipper has been the subject of speculation linking him with a move to Toulon recently.
Asked this morning at a French media event about potential new signings, Paul O’Connell and Duane Vermeulen, Boudjellal answered: “One of the two will be [at] Toulon.”
This week, the Munster man dismissed talk of a move to the south of France before he hangs up his boots.
I wouldn’t begrudge POC a year or two in the sunshine securing his families future. Owes it to himself some might say
Vermeulen then
+1
Might be nice if he actually asked POC in the first place – maybe he might find out that money can’t buy you everything.
Piss off, he’s ours.
Obviously this is gonna be unpopular with Munster fans. O Connell to Clermont and lead them to European title. Prove just how iconic a leader he is. Himself and Cudmore would be some 2nd row
up to him on if he wants to do this but Paulie doesn’t have anything left to prove. And Clermont signed springbok lock Flip van der Merwe btw
Hope He gets neither.
Toulon are a cancer in the game.
And I thought I couldn’t hate Toulon any more. Foxtrot Oscar and leave our hero alone.
Where did he mention Paul O’ Connell’s name?
It’ll be one of Vermeulen, O’Connell and Batman.
County Lover,
Nowhere. MB just half confirmed Vermeulen who’s been linked with a move to Toulon for a while now as Masoe’s replacement, but won’t be made official before july considering Saru rules. There’s no news here. Right now watching some super rugby on french TV, each time Vermeulen’s mentioned, commentateurs systematically add: “le futur Toulonnais”
Impossible, paul is batman, everyone knows that
Realistically the only world class player ye have.
What about Murray Gary?
Gary I’m disappointed in you.
It’s getting even more out of hand now, vermuelen is an absolute monster only better option at 8 in the world they could get would be Kieran read who I don’t see leaving New Zealan.
Once the RWC is done, lots of NZ stars will be moving to Europe. Read is a perfect candidate: he’ll be 30 in October, will have about 80 caps by then, so might well be up for a few well-paid seasons in the northern hemisphere.
absolute world class and captain material, agree with Mark though, with the Lions tour approaching (2017) can’t see him permanently leaving NZ anytime soon
The Lions is much less of a big deal in the SH than here, tbh. Read could double his earnings – at least – if he were to come north.
He may stick around – as you say, he could be the next captain, assuming that McCaw bows out after RWC (35 in Dec).
Will be interesting – NZ has been much more successful than Aus (or SA) at keeping their players at home with the lure of the black shirt.
could go to Japan for a season or two, come back (fit & richer) just in time for the Lions tour before moving north. Any top european side would welcome him (at 32)
I think Toulon will implode eventually. Many of their best players were not world class internationals when they arrived.
Thinking of the Armitage brothers, Chiocci, Tillous Borde and even Bastareau. Others were guys looking for a fresh start like Wilkinson or Giteau.
They built a superb team but if the strategy is just to sign the current best players looking for big cash they will struggle.
Everyone forgets that Toulon are actually a very well supported side with a long history of fanatical support.
Despite being on the Riviera, it is a pretty gritty port town, with most economic activity related to the major naval base. In short: it is a working class town where their rugby club is their religion. Also, cleverly, their stadium has the latest car park in the city underneath it – a constant source of revenues.
Even if the cash and the stellar signings were to dry up, they would still be a fairly big club. The flaw in their strategy over the longer term is their almost total absence of an academy system.
*largest car park
It’ll be interesting to see if they regress entirely without Laporte. You can have all the talent in the world but if they aren’t playing the right rugby under the right coach it won’t matter.
Yeah, look at Leinster. Oodles of talent and fewer league wins than Edinburgh and the same number of wins as Connacht. Just not the right coach.
They don’t have oodles of talent, if a lions team was picked now they would be doing well to have 2 players starting.
1. There are 27 internationals in the Leinster squad. For comparison, there are 19 each at Munster and Ulster.
2. There are also 6 Lions (Munster 5, Ulster 2)
3. You say that they would do well to have 2 Lions starters today. So would any club! Scotland would do well to get 2 players in the squad!!
Playing talent is not the problem at Leinster. Coaching is.
Where the Lions is concerned a whole country is looked at, not individual teams. Few teams would have more than two Lions starters…there’s only 15 starters and these are chosen from 12 teams. If Leinster had two starters that would be fantastic.
If they only had two international starters it’s be a different story.
hi Brian,
almost total absence of an academy system?
LNR published their annual league table based on clubs academy results both sporting & academic. In 2014, Toulon came 3rd behind Racing-Métro and Perpignan. Our Espoirs are currently 2nd, our U16 are champs. On Saturday we had as many academy players on the teamsheet (Chiocci, Orioli, Chilachava, Bruni) as Clermont (Domingo, Ric, Bardy, Rougerie)
Didn’t realise the Espoirs & U16 were doing so well – fair point!
Clermont did also have Fofana, and Lapandry & Malzieu (both injured) are homegrown. Don’t know if Toulon have any others beyond the 4 you mentioned.
Neither club develops talent the way that Toulouse have done in the past, although even they are buying in a lot these days.
One of the things that makes the Irish provinces so special – to supporters at least – is that almost the entire squad is homegrown. Long may it continue – good for the game in Ireland at every level.
They have a young lock named Jedrasiak, as well.
I don’t think Lapandry (great tackler) and Malzieu (who’s off to Montpellier) would have been picked for the Final even if they were fit.
Fofana, unlike those mentioned above, is neither homegrown nor an ASM academy player imho. Born and trained in Paris, joined Clermont at 20, played less than 1 year with their espoirs before becoming pro. Toulon have some gifted winger called Josua Tuisova (Fijian) who joined at 19 and currently playing with espoirs but getting more and more game time with the pros. He obviously improved his game after joining RCT, i wouldn’t label him an archétypal product of our academy though.
You asked about any others beyond those 4 mentioned, well, Frésia (LH prop, played against Leinster in QF à Mayol), Mikautadze (lock), Théo Belan (centre), Ivan Roux (centre). There’s also a promising SH U20 intl, Anthony Méric.
Most of Toulouse major french players, except Huget & Médard, were trained elsewere: Dusautoir (Aquitaine), Maestri (Toulon), Picamoles (Montpellier), Nyanga (Béziers), Clerc (Grenoble)
“One of the things that makes the Irish provinces so special – to supporters at least – is that almost the entire squad is homegrown. Long may it continue – good for the game in Ireland at every level”
Highly respectable and definitely good for the game in Ireland. Problem, Brian, is that you’re comparing provincial/régional rugby with pro club rugby. There are 30 pro clubs in France into the 2 most compétitive (should say ferocious) leagues in the world. It’s bl**dy war every week. There’s no competitive french club with a majority of homegrowns. Not even close.
We were in Pro D2 (2nd tier of the french pro rugby) once, we managed to win promotion with almost an entire squad of homegrowns, and were proud about it. Once in Top14, we got spanked, humiliated. Nobody gave a frak about us. And we soon lost our most promising players. Opponents came to our sacred temple (Mayol) – once feared everywhere across France, before rugby became pro – smiling and taking pictures.
Munster had a real go off them last year and Leinster with a decent coach would have beaten them.
Added to the fact they always seem to get a home semi final.
This lot are not unbeatable.
Agree entirely. Dont forget also that as well as the near misses they have lost 9 league matches in 23 games this Top 14 as well as defeat against Tigers in Europe.
They aren’t invincible by any means.
If Clermont had held on to Joe Schmid they would have had 3 Titles by now…
The sheer size of Toulon next year will make them nearly impossible to beat.Samu Manoa, Romain Taofifenua, , Steffon Armitage, Josua Tuisova, David Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Mathieu Basteraud,Napolioni Nalaga,Salesi Ma’afu and most likely Duane Vermuelen with Chris Mosoe departing to Racing Metro