TOULOUSE’S CELEBRATIONS AT the final whistle last weekend in Montpellier made it seem as if they’d won a trophy.
Hands were flung into the air, players embraced, more ran on from the touchline, and coaches beamed with pride. Toulouse fans who had travelled south bounced in the sun-soaked stands.
The 29-22 victory over Montpellier, who are fighting for their Top 14 lives, meant Toulouse kept top spot in the league table but the scenes of ecstasy were more about the make-up of the team.
With the big guns like Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack resting ahead of the Champions Cup final this Saturday, head coach Ugo Mola sent out a very unfamiliar side in Montpellier. Never mind the B team, this was genuinely C team territory.
And more pertinently, 16 of the matchday 23 either came through Stade Toulousain’s espoirs set-up [similar to the academy in Ireland] or are still part of it. Players like Théo Ntamack and Benjamin Bertrand have played for Toulouse since the age of five or six. Back row Joshua Brennan has been around the club from when he was a baby.
19-year-old out-half Kalvin Gourges was sprung from the bench early on after 20-year-old playmaker Valentin Delpy was forced off. Back row Mathis Castro-Ferreira, 20, scored two tries before 19-year-old Lomig Jouanny replaced him.
There were a few experienced players involved – including Fijian wing Setareki Bituniyata and veteran Samoan lock Piula Fa’asalele – but this was a proud day for Toulouse’s production line.
They take the homegrown side of things seriously at Stade Toulousain, similarly to this weekend’s Champions Cup final opponents Leinster. This has always been the way.
“I remember Romain Ntamack being around his dad at the club,” says former Leinster back row Aidan McCullen, who spent the 2005/06 season with Toulouse, where Émile Ntamack is a legendary figure.
“That was all Romain ever wanted. I remember Josh Brennan when he was only a couple of years old being around Trev. Josh hadn’t even started playing rugby yet but he was in the club.”
This weekend against Leinster, the Toulouse matchday squad will include homegrown players like Cyril Baille, Peato Mauvaka, Julien Marchand, Dorian Aldegheri, François Cros, Ntamack, Paul Costes, Thomas Ramos, and Matthis Lebel.
Romain Ntamack has been playing for Toulouse since the age of five. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
Not all of them were born in the city of Toulouse itself, some joining after playing youths rugby elsewhere, but these players are the embodiment of the Toulouse Way, the exciting style of rugby that the club identifies as central to its identity.
Stade Toulousain were successful from the start. Formed in 1907, they won their first French championship as soon as 1912 and have claimed a record total of 22 titles, with Stade Français next best on 14 titles.
Toulouse also lead the way in the European Cup with five trophies, one ahead of Leinster.
Les rouge et noir dominated French rugby in the 1920s but had a long trophyless spell from the 1940s until the 1980s when the legendary Pierre Villepreux came in as coach and reinvented their game. His ‘total rugby’ was all about encouraging players to think for themselves, to see space, and use their passing and offloading skills to exploit it.
This was the rebirth of the Toulouse Way and Villepreux’s values remain a core part of the club today, even if modern professional rugby requires pragmatism. It would be naive not to note how Ugo Mola’s side can be direct and how they use their kicking game. Gone are the days when young Toulouse players were explicitly banned from kicking.
But still, they love to attack, counter-attack, and attack.
In this season’s Champions Cup, les Toulousains have averaged more tries per game than anyone with 6.6, more linebreaks than anyone with 8.7 per game, and more offloads per game than anyone with 14.4.
Advertisement
This DNA is infused in the homegrown players. They’re coached from an early age in jeu de mains, jeu de Toulousains, the art of keeping the ball alive. This isn’t only about mindset but also the technical details of how players deal with contact.
“It’s very much a culture of playing,” says McCullen. “I was lucky that I played that way, I’d always be hoping to offload the ball. And with Toulouse, there would always be someone there to take the offload. That’s bred into them from a very young age.
“Their system is like a nursery for their future teams. I see such similarities with my work now in innovation,” continues McCullen, who released the book ‘Undisruptable‘ in 2021 and hosts The Innovation Show.
“They were investing in all these budding opportunities knowing that they weren’t all going to make it, but the ones who did would be very special.”
Along with the flair, there is a hard edge to the best Toulouse teams. In order for the piano players to flourish, there has always been a need for piano shifters.
Head coach Ugo Mola previously played for the club. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
The club values players like Brennan who lead the charge physically as others create the magic, and the mindset in the team has always been ruthless. Toulouse are not just about playing for the fun of it.
“Guy Novès didn’t say much to players but I remember one of my first home games when he told me, ‘Here, we absolutely crush people,’” says McCullen.
“He meant that if we were to play someone at home, it would be merciless, never taking the foot off the pedal. He wanted other teams to see what we did to this team and that it would be left in the psyche of teams we’d play in the future.”
That so many people at all levels of the club are Toulousains themselves helps maintain traditions. Current club president Didier Lacroix played for them in the 80s and 90s before becoming an espoirs coach and being nurtured to take over the presidency in 2017.
Lacroix is the latest in a long line of ex-Toulouse players to become the club’s president and the same is true of the head coach role.
Current boss Mola played for Toulouse in the 90s and after a decade coaching elsewhere, got the big gig in 2015. There were ropy times early in his tenure, partly because the end of the Guy Novès era had been poor. There were dark days when they missed out on Champions Cup qualification, but a recommitment to Toulouse’s DNA saw them back winning the Top 14 by 2019 and earning their most recent European crown in 2021.
Mola’s predecessors were ex-Toulouse players too, with the long-serving and hugely successful Novès, Albert Cigagna, Jean-Claude Skrela, and the great Villepreux having all worn the black and red.
Mola’s current coaching team is completely made up of former Toulouse players in forwards coach Jean Bouilhou, backs specialist Clément Poitrenaud, defence coach Laurent Thuéry, scrum expert Virgile Lacombe, and skills coach Jerome Kaino.
Kaino is a good example of how Toulouse welcome outsiders to improve what they develop themselves. Brennan is another great example, remaining a legend in the club and a local in the area today with his eldest son Daniel having played for Toulouse before moving on, while Joshua and Bobby are still on the books.
McCullen only had one injury-disrupted season in Toulouse but he was greatly impacted by his time there.
“I was disappointed not to have done better and recently I was invited to a match by the club and I said to the guy who had recruited me, Jean-Michel Rancoule, that I had this niggle about things not landing for me the way they did for Trev.
“He told me, ‘You played for Toulouse, you’re part of something amazing and you will always be part of that.’ That made me feel so much better, it was almost a bit of closure. You think you’re just another number, that no one cares, but he said, ‘You played for Toulouse you idiot.’”
Pita Ahki has proven a smart addition. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Toulouse generally recruit well. They have the financial power to go for big names at times – the likes of Kaino, Cheslin Kolbe, Byron Kelleher, and Nepo Laulala – but often their additions are French players or lower-key foreigners.
Take influential centre Pita Ahki in the current team. He was with Connacht in 2017/18 but wasn’t a star and though he hoped to remain in Ireland, he was released. Toulouse pounced and Ahki is now one of their most important players.
Mammoth lock Emmanuel Meafou was bouncing around in Australia, missing out on Super Rugby deals, spending time in rugby league, and considering pursuing an NFL contract until his agent sent clips to French clubs and Toulouse snapped him up. Six-and-a-half years later, Meafou is a France international.
A young scrum-half called Antoine Dupont was a shrewd addition from Castres in 2017, even if his high-end potential was clear.
Again, it would be naive to think that Toulouse’s impressive squad doesn’t cost a lot of money to retain. The club’s overall operating budget of more than €40 million has long been the biggest in France where the salary cap for player salaries is €10 million.
But it’s also important to highlight that the club isn’t owned by one billionaire. 48% is held by the Association Stade Toulousain Rugby, 25% by the Amis du Stade Toulousain, 12% by accountancy firm Fiducial, and 15% by a range of smaller shareholders.
“The likes of Toulon did well from having a wealthy owner but the problem with that is you can have ‘ego buys’ that trump ‘culture buys’ in terms of recruitment,” says McCullen.
“If any business has a billionaire behind it and they suddenly pull out the money, the business is screwed.”
Toulouse reportedly had financial challenges during the mid-2010s, coinciding with their on-pitch malaise, but the club’s sheer popularity means they recovered well.
They have strong attendances at the 19,000-capacity Ernest Wallon, can take games to Le Stadium, a 33,000-capacity venue where the football team play, and make millions from merchandise every year. They also plan to expand Ernest Wallon in the near future.
Toulouse-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus have been a longtime sponsor and Toulouse’s jerseys currently carry Peugeot on the front. So they’ve worked hard to ensure financial stability and sustainability.
It’s also helpful that Toulouse is pure rugby country. Rugby is a local obsession. Anywhere players and coaches go, they are encouraged and supported.
Toulouse get huge support at home. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“It makes you realise that it’s bigger than the match,” says McCullen.
“The town needs you to play well. You realise that this next match is everything for people, that it’s what they’ve been looking forward to all week. Rugby is a huge part of society.”
Anyone who has been to Ernest Wallon or Le Stadium can vouch for the passion, colour, and energy that Toulouse fans bring. If you haven’t been, add it to your rugby bucket list. It sweetens the deal that Toulouse, la Ville Rose, is a beautiful place with incredible food and wine. It’s not hard to see why players are attracted to the club and often stay for so long.
And all of this is why both homegrown and imported players feel so passionately about Stade Toulousain. It’s why so many ex-players yearn to remain involved after retiring or want to get back to Toulouse somewhere down the line.
“There’s this thing that a military strategist called Carl von Clausewitz spoke about called ‘moral force.’” says McCullen.
“He said that if you can extract a moral force from an army, the troops, you can achieve amazing victories. Moral force is fighting for something bigger than what’s happening on the pitch. It’s what Andy Farrell was trying to do with Ireland in the World Cup, it’s what South Africa did – ‘this is not about you.’
“Toulouse are about something bigger than just the rugby match. That force is massive.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
12 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'Toulouse are about something bigger than just the rugby match'
TOULOUSE’S CELEBRATIONS AT the final whistle last weekend in Montpellier made it seem as if they’d won a trophy.
Hands were flung into the air, players embraced, more ran on from the touchline, and coaches beamed with pride. Toulouse fans who had travelled south bounced in the sun-soaked stands.
The 29-22 victory over Montpellier, who are fighting for their Top 14 lives, meant Toulouse kept top spot in the league table but the scenes of ecstasy were more about the make-up of the team.
With the big guns like Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack resting ahead of the Champions Cup final this Saturday, head coach Ugo Mola sent out a very unfamiliar side in Montpellier. Never mind the B team, this was genuinely C team territory.
And more pertinently, 16 of the matchday 23 either came through Stade Toulousain’s espoirs set-up [similar to the academy in Ireland] or are still part of it. Players like Théo Ntamack and Benjamin Bertrand have played for Toulouse since the age of five or six. Back row Joshua Brennan has been around the club from when he was a baby.
19-year-old out-half Kalvin Gourges was sprung from the bench early on after 20-year-old playmaker Valentin Delpy was forced off. Back row Mathis Castro-Ferreira, 20, scored two tries before 19-year-old Lomig Jouanny replaced him.
There were a few experienced players involved – including Fijian wing Setareki Bituniyata and veteran Samoan lock Piula Fa’asalele – but this was a proud day for Toulouse’s production line.
They take the homegrown side of things seriously at Stade Toulousain, similarly to this weekend’s Champions Cup final opponents Leinster. This has always been the way.
“I remember Romain Ntamack being around his dad at the club,” says former Leinster back row Aidan McCullen, who spent the 2005/06 season with Toulouse, where Émile Ntamack is a legendary figure.
“That was all Romain ever wanted. I remember Josh Brennan when he was only a couple of years old being around Trev. Josh hadn’t even started playing rugby yet but he was in the club.”
This weekend against Leinster, the Toulouse matchday squad will include homegrown players like Cyril Baille, Peato Mauvaka, Julien Marchand, Dorian Aldegheri, François Cros, Ntamack, Paul Costes, Thomas Ramos, and Matthis Lebel.
Not all of them were born in the city of Toulouse itself, some joining after playing youths rugby elsewhere, but these players are the embodiment of the Toulouse Way, the exciting style of rugby that the club identifies as central to its identity.
Stade Toulousain were successful from the start. Formed in 1907, they won their first French championship as soon as 1912 and have claimed a record total of 22 titles, with Stade Français next best on 14 titles.
Toulouse also lead the way in the European Cup with five trophies, one ahead of Leinster.
Les rouge et noir dominated French rugby in the 1920s but had a long trophyless spell from the 1940s until the 1980s when the legendary Pierre Villepreux came in as coach and reinvented their game. His ‘total rugby’ was all about encouraging players to think for themselves, to see space, and use their passing and offloading skills to exploit it.
This was the rebirth of the Toulouse Way and Villepreux’s values remain a core part of the club today, even if modern professional rugby requires pragmatism. It would be naive not to note how Ugo Mola’s side can be direct and how they use their kicking game. Gone are the days when young Toulouse players were explicitly banned from kicking.
But still, they love to attack, counter-attack, and attack.
In this season’s Champions Cup, les Toulousains have averaged more tries per game than anyone with 6.6, more linebreaks than anyone with 8.7 per game, and more offloads per game than anyone with 14.4.
This DNA is infused in the homegrown players. They’re coached from an early age in jeu de mains, jeu de Toulousains, the art of keeping the ball alive. This isn’t only about mindset but also the technical details of how players deal with contact.
“It’s very much a culture of playing,” says McCullen. “I was lucky that I played that way, I’d always be hoping to offload the ball. And with Toulouse, there would always be someone there to take the offload. That’s bred into them from a very young age.
“Their system is like a nursery for their future teams. I see such similarities with my work now in innovation,” continues McCullen, who released the book ‘Undisruptable‘ in 2021 and hosts The Innovation Show.
“They were investing in all these budding opportunities knowing that they weren’t all going to make it, but the ones who did would be very special.”
Along with the flair, there is a hard edge to the best Toulouse teams. In order for the piano players to flourish, there has always been a need for piano shifters.
The club values players like Brennan who lead the charge physically as others create the magic, and the mindset in the team has always been ruthless. Toulouse are not just about playing for the fun of it.
“Guy Novès didn’t say much to players but I remember one of my first home games when he told me, ‘Here, we absolutely crush people,’” says McCullen.
“He meant that if we were to play someone at home, it would be merciless, never taking the foot off the pedal. He wanted other teams to see what we did to this team and that it would be left in the psyche of teams we’d play in the future.”
That so many people at all levels of the club are Toulousains themselves helps maintain traditions. Current club president Didier Lacroix played for them in the 80s and 90s before becoming an espoirs coach and being nurtured to take over the presidency in 2017.
Lacroix is the latest in a long line of ex-Toulouse players to become the club’s president and the same is true of the head coach role.
Current boss Mola played for Toulouse in the 90s and after a decade coaching elsewhere, got the big gig in 2015. There were ropy times early in his tenure, partly because the end of the Guy Novès era had been poor. There were dark days when they missed out on Champions Cup qualification, but a recommitment to Toulouse’s DNA saw them back winning the Top 14 by 2019 and earning their most recent European crown in 2021.
Mola’s predecessors were ex-Toulouse players too, with the long-serving and hugely successful Novès, Albert Cigagna, Jean-Claude Skrela, and the great Villepreux having all worn the black and red.
Mola’s current coaching team is completely made up of former Toulouse players in forwards coach Jean Bouilhou, backs specialist Clément Poitrenaud, defence coach Laurent Thuéry, scrum expert Virgile Lacombe, and skills coach Jerome Kaino.
Kaino is a good example of how Toulouse welcome outsiders to improve what they develop themselves. Brennan is another great example, remaining a legend in the club and a local in the area today with his eldest son Daniel having played for Toulouse before moving on, while Joshua and Bobby are still on the books.
McCullen only had one injury-disrupted season in Toulouse but he was greatly impacted by his time there.
“I was disappointed not to have done better and recently I was invited to a match by the club and I said to the guy who had recruited me, Jean-Michel Rancoule, that I had this niggle about things not landing for me the way they did for Trev.
“He told me, ‘You played for Toulouse, you’re part of something amazing and you will always be part of that.’ That made me feel so much better, it was almost a bit of closure. You think you’re just another number, that no one cares, but he said, ‘You played for Toulouse you idiot.’”
Toulouse generally recruit well. They have the financial power to go for big names at times – the likes of Kaino, Cheslin Kolbe, Byron Kelleher, and Nepo Laulala – but often their additions are French players or lower-key foreigners.
Take influential centre Pita Ahki in the current team. He was with Connacht in 2017/18 but wasn’t a star and though he hoped to remain in Ireland, he was released. Toulouse pounced and Ahki is now one of their most important players.
Mammoth lock Emmanuel Meafou was bouncing around in Australia, missing out on Super Rugby deals, spending time in rugby league, and considering pursuing an NFL contract until his agent sent clips to French clubs and Toulouse snapped him up. Six-and-a-half years later, Meafou is a France international.
A young scrum-half called Antoine Dupont was a shrewd addition from Castres in 2017, even if his high-end potential was clear.
Again, it would be naive to think that Toulouse’s impressive squad doesn’t cost a lot of money to retain. The club’s overall operating budget of more than €40 million has long been the biggest in France where the salary cap for player salaries is €10 million.
But it’s also important to highlight that the club isn’t owned by one billionaire. 48% is held by the Association Stade Toulousain Rugby, 25% by the Amis du Stade Toulousain, 12% by accountancy firm Fiducial, and 15% by a range of smaller shareholders.
“The likes of Toulon did well from having a wealthy owner but the problem with that is you can have ‘ego buys’ that trump ‘culture buys’ in terms of recruitment,” says McCullen.
“If any business has a billionaire behind it and they suddenly pull out the money, the business is screwed.”
Toulouse reportedly had financial challenges during the mid-2010s, coinciding with their on-pitch malaise, but the club’s sheer popularity means they recovered well.
They have strong attendances at the 19,000-capacity Ernest Wallon, can take games to Le Stadium, a 33,000-capacity venue where the football team play, and make millions from merchandise every year. They also plan to expand Ernest Wallon in the near future.
Toulouse-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus have been a longtime sponsor and Toulouse’s jerseys currently carry Peugeot on the front. So they’ve worked hard to ensure financial stability and sustainability.
It’s also helpful that Toulouse is pure rugby country. Rugby is a local obsession. Anywhere players and coaches go, they are encouraged and supported.
“It makes you realise that it’s bigger than the match,” says McCullen.
“The town needs you to play well. You realise that this next match is everything for people, that it’s what they’ve been looking forward to all week. Rugby is a huge part of society.”
Anyone who has been to Ernest Wallon or Le Stadium can vouch for the passion, colour, and energy that Toulouse fans bring. If you haven’t been, add it to your rugby bucket list. It sweetens the deal that Toulouse, la Ville Rose, is a beautiful place with incredible food and wine. It’s not hard to see why players are attracted to the club and often stay for so long.
And all of this is why both homegrown and imported players feel so passionately about Stade Toulousain. It’s why so many ex-players yearn to remain involved after retiring or want to get back to Toulouse somewhere down the line.
“There’s this thing that a military strategist called Carl von Clausewitz spoke about called ‘moral force.’” says McCullen.
“He said that if you can extract a moral force from an army, the troops, you can achieve amazing victories. Moral force is fighting for something bigger than what’s happening on the pitch. It’s what Andy Farrell was trying to do with Ireland in the World Cup, it’s what South Africa did – ‘this is not about you.’
“Toulouse are about something bigger than just the rugby match. That force is massive.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Aidan McCullen DNA identity Toulouse