Toulon heading in right direction
TOULON coach Pierre Mignoni earned something of a reprieve this weekend, as his side’s 54-7 win over Montpellier at Stade Mayol helped soothe a few ruffled feathers among fans – for now, at least. While the result, which bounced Toulon provisionally into the playoff places, will help, it will take more than an eight-try victory to heal relations between the faithful and the club that goes beyond performances on the pitch.
The Var side’s plunge from grace has been dramatic this season. They were second in the table in early November. By kick-off in this weekend’s 19th-round match, they were down in eighth, with just three wins from their last 13 matches in all competitions.
Over the same period, the mood in the stands at Stade Mayol has dipped through the emotions to border on the mutinous. After the 20-6 loss at Racing 92 last time out, it had gone past critical banners at the ground, through social media posts of fans cutting up their season tickets, to an open letter criticising “six years of sporting nothingness”.
The criticism in the letter is not limited to the players, though it accuses them of being “better known for their extra-sporting escapades than their efforts on the pitch”.
It retains its biggest criticism for the club’s management.
Fans unfurled another banner in the stands at the kick off to yesterday’s match, castigating the club for suddenly offloading Louis Carbonel two seasons ago. According to the banner, the fly-half was, is, and forever will be: “A child of Mayol”.
Carbonel – who started against his former club yesterday in a team managed by the coach on whose watch he left Toulon in the first place – has become something of a poster boy for the discontent.
He’s an academy product whose elevation to the senior side was sold as the origin story of a brave new academy-led world at the club.
The idea pitched was that the club would back away from the galactico model of old, in favour of developing a production line of its own stars – in the mould of Carbonel, the newly returned Melvyn Jaminet, and prop Bruce Devaux.
Fans regard the news of Devaux’s departure for Perpignan at the end of the season as another symptom of the ‘nothingness’ malaise that has permeated the club in recent years.
Yesterday’s eight-try bonuspoint win – with Dan Biggar on the trysheet – will calm the acute situation. Toulon are back in the play-off mix after a must-win match. Meanwhile, president Bernard Lemaitre recognised the ‘frustration and suffering’ of fans in a statement to regional newspaper Var Matin.
What happens next? An engagement with fans on strategy and direction? Clearer signposting on club’s future? We’ll have to wait and see. More simply and in the rest-of-the-season very short-term, a run to the play-offs would help.
Senior Clermont players and staff got together for a series of meetings in the two weeks between Top 14 matches, following a run of three defeats and a draw. Whatever was said in those meetings, whatever gameplan alterations and acceptances of responsibility were agreed, it seems to have worked, as they came from behind to beat Pau 31-28 in a thriller of an encounter at Stade Marcel Michelin.
It’s almost impossible to see a route to Top 14 survival now for last season’s ProD2 champions Oyonnax, after they lost 14-15 at home to Perpignan – with Ali Crossdale scoring a wonder-try for the visitors, as they came from behind to pick up a crucial win on the road. The result leaves Oyonnax 12 points adrift of 13th, currently occupied by Montpellier.
France captain Gregory Alldritt scored in the 74th minute of La Rochelle’s match at Bayonne’s Stade Jean Dauger – on his 27th birthday, as Ronan O’Gara’s side pushed the Basque side to the limit in Saturday’s primetime match.
It had looked to be going all the home side’s way, but Judicael Canoriet 68th minute try, and Alldritt’s score five minutes later turned what had been a 13-0 cruise into an all-hands 13-12 panic. But Bayonne held out for the four points.
How do you describe Castres v Racing 92 at Stade Pierre Fabre? Tense? Frustrating? Exciting? Mad? None of them seem, quite, to do it justice on their own. It was all these adjectives and more.
It was a must-win encounter for both sides – Racing had won just one in their previous six; Castres had lost their last two on the road. The visitors led 20-6 at half-time, thanks to tries from Christian Wade and Wame Naituvi, and seemed en route to a third win on the road. Castres fought their way back to lead 21-20 with six minutes left. But – despite having three players in the sin bin at the same time – Racing were awarded a penalty that won them the game 21-23.
Out of the Champions Cup, and with only their Top 14 challenge remaining, Stade Francais kicked off a stop-start end to their season with a come-from-behind 22-13 win over Lyon in what was for the first hour a veritable arm wrestle of a match at Stade Jean Bouin.
Bordeaux host Toulouse this evening at Stade Chaban Delmas. Returning internationals Julien Marchand, Thomas Ramos, Thibaud Flament and Alexandre Roumat all start for the visitors, while Cyril Baille, Emmanuel Meafou, Francois Cros and a certain Antoine Dupont are on the bench. For the hosts, Matthieu Jalibert is back from the injury suffered during the Six Nations to start alongside habitual scrum-half Maxime Lucu, while Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Damian Penaud, Yoram Moefana and Nicolas Depoortere all make an immediate return to the starting line-up.
“Mignoni earned something of a reprieve with an impressive win over Montpellier”