In-form Toulon go into
Friday night’s ACC semi-final flying high with all the
confidence that 10 successive wins brings, but their current
productivity is down to far more than just the financial
benevolence of multi-millionaire president Mourad
Boudjellal.
Recruitment may have
been facilitated by the Boudjellal’s cash – that’s
undeniable – but head coach Philippe Saint-André has still
worked wonders in fashioning a squad that is now challenging
for honours on two fronts in less than a season since taking
the helm.
One of those new
recruits added last summer was former Bristol captain Joe
El-Abd, the back row snarler who has formed such a dynamic
partnership alongside Joe van Niekerk and Juan Sebastien
Lobbe – two of the finest players currently plying their
trade in Top 14.
El-Abd believes it’s
been Saint-André’s canny acquisitions and shrewd management
which has made the difference, along with the odd
international sprinkled in here and there.
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“I think no-one really
expected the success that we’ve had so far but I’d say it’s
a combination of the players we got and, probably more
importantly, the spirit that we’ve somehow managed to get
within the squad. It’s as good as I’ve been involved with
and it’s the biggest key to what has happened so far this
season,” he told frenchrugbyclub.com.
“It’s to do with the
personalities in the squad and how they interact really. I
think that is a big plus to Philippe with who he brought in.
I don’t think he just bought in any player - he obviously
bought in players who had a good personality and would fit
into what he was trying to do. We’re very close as a team
and all the boys are good friends off the pitch as well as
on it, so it makes a big difference,” said El-Abd.
That togetherness has
been all too apparent to onlookers, especially during the
latter half of the season, and the club now stands on the
threshold of both domestic and European honours. Connacht
away is the first task – on Friday night – with victory for
Toulon promising a frenzied finale just a skip along the
Cote d’Azur at Marseille’s 60,000 seater Stade Velodrome.
It’s where Toulon relocate their sell-out home games to and
would clearly give a massive advantage to the French side.
“In essence we’d be playing a home match,” admitted El-Abd.
“I can only imagine it being full with 50,000 Toulon fans
being there, and that would be a pretty special match.”
But, being the good
club that he is, El-Abd also acknowledged that “we’ve
achieved nothing yet” and realizes that their season will be
defined by their next two (or hopefully four) games. But the
anticipation for what lies ahead is exciting rather than
daunting, as you might expect from a team which has carried
all before it since it’s last defeat, way back in January as
they went down 28-9 away to Saracens having already secured
their safe passage through in the ACC pool round.
Since then the likes of
Stade Toulousain, Biarritz and Perpignan have all been
dispatched – long with the Scarlets – and now they must
triumph in Ireland.
“We can’t wait to play
now, we just love playing together when we get out on the
pitch," said the 30-year-old flanker.
El-Abd is actually
sitting out this match as part of Saint-Andre’s successful
squad rotation. It’s a balance that can be hard to perfect,
but the former Sale boss has managed to keep his players
fresh (and happy) while refusing to allow the overall
performances to drop. Of course, it helps when you can rest
someone like Jonny Wilkinson and replace him with Felipe
Contepomi, such is Toulon’s enviable squad depth these days.
'The squad we’ve got
here is fantastic'
“That creates
competition and make you want to play even better when your
chance comes,” admits El-Abd. “The squad we’ve got here is
fantastic. We’ve got two, sometimes three, in each position
who can play at the same level pretty much. Obviously he’s
going to chose his first team for certain matches, but even
when others come in and play at the level they play at it’s
fantastic. Obviously we’ve come to the end of the season now
and we’re into the play-offs, but you still feel really
fresh. Whereas I remember playing in England when you got to
the end of the season you felt like it was the end of the
season, so that’s a credit to the trainers and the
conditioning staff here too.”
Toulon may have its
star names – growing almost by the day – but the squad’s
unity overrides all. No one player is bigger than the team,
although some do inevitably grab the headlines. Wilkinson is
one such player but so too, increasingly, is Sonny Bill
Williams. The former rugby league player has been in
dazzling form of late and is now burgeoning into the force
he was tipped to become.
“I think after the last
season, when he got injured quite early, he was never at
100%, in fact he was probably never at 70%. This year he’s
been fantastic and his ability to off-load and tackle – his
defence is so good – and he’s a big threat to the other
team. I can imagine they don’t like seeing his name on the
team sheet,” confides El-Abd.
He also has huge respect for assistant coach Tana Umaga, who
recently came out of retirement for one last hurrah. “Not
bad at all,” he chuckles. “That helps just in the changing
room I think. When you’ve got someone of his stature and
you’re standing alongside him you feel like you’re 10ft tall
and not only that he comes on the pitch and whatever age he
is he plays great games, so it’s absolutely fantastic.”
Against Connacht
starting scrum-half will once more by Matt Henjak, the
Australian who was restricted to just ACC games after giving
up his ‘foreigner’ slot in Toulon’s league squad to
accommodate Contepomi when he regained fitness.
The feisty No 9 trains
diligently with the squad day-in and day-out, waiting
patiently for his European playing time to come around
again. “That can be hard to do week-in and week-out, but
he’s been an absolute revelation really. He’s been fantastic
with his attitude. That sort of this really helps team
spirit,” says El-Abd. “He can’t play in any other games but
his attitude in training and off the pitch has been
fantastic. And when he comes to play – even though he hasn’t
played for a couple of months - he comes in and puts in a
performance of such a high level, which I guess you expect
of a player of his calibre.”
Henjak, thus, has more incentive than most to keep the ACC
bandwagon going, but it’s his devotion to the cause which is
illustrative – and also the club’s attitude towards him. It
was not easy to effectively ‘let a player go’ midway through
the season, but rather than usher him away they found a way
to keep him involved, albeit on a more limited scale. The
pay back has been the captaincy in certain games, a nice
touch by a cub that appears grounded by the influence of
Saint-André
despite the massive investment for Boudjellal. They make an
odd couple together, but then that’s never been a barrier to
success.
