Ollie Phillips column: 'We're not broke, and we still think we can win the Heineken Cup'

By Ollie Phillips, 01 April 2010

Much has been written and said about Stade Francais in recent weeks but as far as we’re concerned what’s happened has happened and all we can do is try and win our remaining four games – starting with Clermont Auvergne at the Stade de France on Saturday.

Contrary to what you may have heard the club has not gone bust – Max [Guazzini] came in and reassured us all about that this week – and we still remain in with a chance of winning the Heineken Cup and qualifying for the Top 14 play-offs.

Top 14 Table  / Top 14 leading scorers / Top 14 Results / Top 14 Fixtures / Top 14 Transfers

Sure, it’s been a tougher season than we may have expected and obviously we haven’t done ourselves any favours in terms of our recent results, but it all boils down to the next four games really. It’s a mini-season, and it’s shit or bust (if you’ll pardon my French).

The mood in the camp is determined and I, for one, am bursting at the seams to get out there and play. I spoke in my last column about the heal injury that affected me before Christmas and in the end it has taken three months rather than three weeks to get better, which has been enormously frustrating.

Indeed, I’ve only played 80 minutes rugby in total in nearing four months so I am desperate to go out and try my best to help Stade win the Heineken Cup and reach the play-offs.

I’d also like to clear up what happened when I was named in the England sevens squad for Adelaide, but eventually didn’t go. My heal was still causing me a few problems at the time but the plan was to play against Brive and then fly to Adelaide for that tournament before returning on the Monday so I could be available for Perpignan on the Friday. I wasn’t sure how my foot was going to hold up with the sevens so in the end I stayed in France, although with hindsight I don’t know if that was the right thing because I sat on the bench against Brive and wasn’t involved at all against Perpignan.

"I love playing for my country"

Maybe the rest has done my foot good but I haven’t really got any match sharpness back, which is a bit frustrating. But as I’ve always said I love playing for my country but my priority at the moment is to play for Stade. We’re in a difficult spot at the moment and I want to make sure that I’m as fit as I can be to help us try and qualify for Europe and hopefully win the Heineken Cup.

We know we’ll have to improve on our recent performances but we suffered a lot of disruption during the Six Nations period and have also had to contend with the bans for David Attoub and Julien Dupuy. We’ve also had serious injuries to guys like Brian Liebenberg and Sergio Parisse, while last weekend we lost both Juan Manuel Leguizamon and Djibril Camara.

It probably sounds like I’m making excuses but I’m just highlighting the disruption that these things cause – although it did give me some peace in my flat as ‘Hask’ was away with England for two months.

If you look at Stade Toulousain they’ve lost more games than usual this season – again during the international period – whereas the two teams which are maybe ‘surprise packages’ this year (Castres and Toulon) have had minimal disruption. Toulon lost Jonny but then they had Felipe Contepomi, who has slotted in and been brilliant for them, and as a result of that you get to build on that consistency and you get used to playing with each other. Then, when Jonny comes back, he comes back to a side that has been winning, is playing well and is high on confidence. When you add great players to a side that is already playing well then it’s awesome. The problem with us we’ve had a different team every week - I can’t remember the last time we had the same team for two games in a row.

On Saturday we’re going to have our future boss watching from the stands as Michael Cheika eyes up Clermont ahead of Leinster’s Heineken Cup quarterfinal with them. It was a bit of a shock to find out that Jacques Delmas wasn’t going to be staying on but obviously Max had a remit from when he signed him and he wanted success, and at the moment he has deemed that we haven’t been successful so he’s changed the coaches.

I don’t know enough about Michael Cheika to comment on whether that’s a good move or a bad move to be honest. Obviously he has had great success with Leinster and hopefully he can bring that with him to Stade. For sure it’s definitely been a more difficult season for Stade than in the past and I think that’s more testament to the way Top 14 is at the moment. It’s such a competitive league now that if you’re not on the money every week you are going to get found out or beaten unfortunately, and that’s happened to us. Circumstances have then gone against us, or been unfortunate, but that’s how it goes in professional sport and that’s the nature of the beast.

No worries

The press have been our backs a lot – especially in Paris – and I’d be lying if I said you ignore it, because you can’t really ignore it. The biggest thing from our perspective is that we spoke to Max. He came in and spoke to everyone and he reassured everyone. Some people appear to be rejoicing that we have this financial hardship but he said it’s nothing severe, it’s nothing to worry about. Basically our situation is the same that every other French club is facing at the moment:  there’s an economic crisis and as a result clubs are suffering.  You only have to look at what’s happening with Montauban to realise that. Stade is no different, and is not exempt from that in any shape or form, but it’s not a case of Stade’s going to go under or we’re under major financial threat, it’s just that there’s an economic crisis going on at the moment and Stade, like every other club in France, is losing some money at the moment.

So we just try and concentrate on the playing side of things, beginning with Clermont on Saturday. We’ve got four games left to the end of the season and we have to play a full strength side every week and go out and win. If we win all our remaining games then we’ll win the Heineken Cup, and that’s our challenge now.

Obviously, to do that we have to go down to Toulouse and win there, but nothing’s impossible - that’s the beauty of sport. You just don’t know what will happen to be honest.

Toulon have gone to Toulouse and won there, we drew 9-9 there and nearly won. If we’re on the money on the day we’ve got the class and players to easily go down and win that game, so history doesn’t really count for anything. People will say that they thrashed us 0-29 at the Stade de France, but that just means that on that day they beat us convincingly, and if anything I guess you could say that gives us more incentive. 

That’s the situation that we are in. and we can’t change that - we simply have to win. Obviously when you’re in the club environment you don’t want that sort of situation, but that’s what’s happened, that’s professional rugby and it’s our job as professional sportsmen to go out and win it.

Apart from all that my life in France is fantastic. Paris is a brilliant city to live in, I live with ‘Hask’ and we’ve got a really good relationship. We get on very well together and life is brilliant. I just wish I was playing a bit more and that our fortunes turn around a bit on the rugby front, because that’s the only area where we’re struggling at the moment.

Rugby royalty

Hopefully I can get on against Clermont because it was against them earlier in the season that I made my first proper start – playing the full 80 minutes – and I managed to score a try as we drew down there. I would love to play against them again and try and help us win. Then we’d have reason to celebrate on Saturday night, although we’ve already got a party planned as it Hask’s birthday. We had a little bash for him on Tuesday evening but he’s royalty – or he acts like it! – so he’s getting two birthdays this year. Let’s hope we also have double reason to celebrate.

Previous column: Snow, injuries and playing away - all in a day's work at Stade

© Copyright FrenchRugbyClub.com. All rights reserved.