I may sell Toulon for €1 - Lemaitre
AMATTER of weeks after ProD2 strugglers Biarritz were sold for €1, Toulon owner Bernard Lemaitre suggested he might be willing to sell the Top 14 side for a similar symbolic sum “to [a] serious buyer”.
The club, sixth in the table coming into the weekend, had not troubled the play-offs since the 85-year-old took over the club from Mourad Boudjellal in 2018.
Earlier this season, in response to an increase in fan discontent following a dip in form and a run down the table, owner and manager Pierre Mignoni held a number of meetings with fans, and promised greater clarity on plans for the future.
In fairness, the grand idea that Lemaitre had come on board with – to build a Toulon side of and for Toulon people, by powering up an academy system to Toulouse standards – has been painfully slow in the execution. And the departure of ‘child of Toulon’ Louis Carbonel a couple of seasons ago, along with some expensive imports – not all of whom have been successful – have not helped relations, or boosted the club’s ‘homegrown’ team credentials.
In an interview with Le Figaro, in which he also fired a parting shot at Sale Sharks-bound Waisea Nayacalevu who he described as ‘a sporting disappointment’ during his time at Stade Mayol, Lemaitre put several expensive conditions on any future sale.
While there’s no suggestion Lemaitre wants out any time soon, it’s clear he would be willing to examine some form of succession from the right person. Any new owner, he said, must have deep enough pockets and long enough arms to dip into them as necessary to rebuild the Toulon back to the level of the early 2010s – when Toulon won three Champions Cup finals in a row, was a near-automatic presence in the play-offs and did the double with the Top 14 title in 2014.
Finding such “a rare bird” would not be easy, he admitted. “But, if [someone] comes forward, I will consider [the offer]. If I find a person ready to follow me, I will be very happy to sell the club for a symbolic euro…”
Their hard-fought 30-24 win over Lyon at Stade Mayol – a Dan Biggar penalty in the 79th minute gave them a six-point cushion – consolidated the potentially for-sale club’s place in the play-offs.
“The grand idea to build a Toulon side of and for the city has been painfully slow to develop”
Last weekend’s Challenge Cup semi-final loss in extremis at The Stoop appears to have, belatedly, kickstarted Clermont’s season. In the opening match of the Top 14 programme, they came from behind to beat Perpignan 28-35 in an utterly mad match at Stade Aime Giral. Two tries in the final 10 minutes, including the decisive score for surely soon-to-be-capped scrum-half Baptiste Jauneau, gave the visitors the four points.
Another crazy game at Stade Abbe Deschamps, Racing 92’s home for the rest of the season, with La Defense Arena out of action because of Taylor Swift and the Paris Olympics, as they lost to Bayonne 28-37.
Josua Tuisova scored one minute into his long-awaited debut for Racing. Gael Fickou followed suit five minutes later, and Camille Chat added a third in the 22nd minute. Fullback Tom Spring – brother of the hosts’ 15 Max – answered back for the visitors, while former Racing hero Maxime Machenaud scored twice in two minutes, and Guillaume Martocq scored a 100m try-of-the-season contender in a seven-try first-half.
Just the one try in the second period – for Fickou, but it wasn’t enough to stop Bayonne picking up their first win on the road this season.
In comparison, Castres-Montpellier at Stade Pierre Fabre was a nail-biting, slow-burning, tension-builder. The visitors had the better of the opening exchanges, and should have been away after Auguste Cadot’s double in a few minutes while Filipo Nakosi was sin-binned. But Castres fought back to trail by just three at the break, and took the lead for the first time on the hour. It ended 27-26, to leave the visitors stuck in the relegation play-off place, eight points adrift of Lyon, in 12th.
With three matches of the season left, the best bottom-of-the-table Oyonnax can hope for after their 39-17 loss at Pau is to overtake Montpellier, nine points ahead of them, and give themselves a play-off chance of survival.
Bordeaux were in party mode as they easily beat La Rochelle 34-14 at Stade Chaban Delmas. The floodgates opened after a cagey first quarter. The hosts scored three – including another glorious end-to-end score finished by Louis Bielle-Biarrey to grace future highlights reels – by the end of the first half, and another three in the second.
The 23rd weekend of the season closes on Sunday evening, as Champions Cup finalists Toulouse entertain Stade Francais in the Top 14’s Classico. It will have to go some to raise the high tension bar set by some of Saturday’s matches.