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Winning captain: Joe El-Abd
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RCN Toulon |
It's been a topsy-turvy start to the season for much-fancied
Toulon, but as club flanker and FRC columnist Joe El Abd
explains, an early-season home defeat may have been just the
thing to rid them of any complacency. The former Bristol man
this week talks about that home loss to Bayonne and the
backlash which followed away to Biarritz, where Toulon won
for the first time in 29 years - and under his captaincy to
boot! Take the applause Captain El-Abd...
I always think that
after you have lost a game
it's time to shut up and get to work on the training field
in an attempt to put things right. So that’s exactly what I
did last week, no blog, no interviews just hard work.
The opening weekend of
the season did not go to plan. As we all know home matches
are sacred in France so to lose our first match to Bayonne -
a team that finished 13th last season - was
inexcusable. It was the first time we had lost at home in 18
months, so we are no longer ‘Invaincu a Mayol’.
Anyone who watched the
game might say that we could, and perhaps should, have won
with the amount of chances we had but in the end I don’t
think we deserved to come away with the victory. We were
outfought in the contact area and struggled to cope with an
aggressive Bayonne defence. I must give all credit to
Bayonne, who were a completely changed team from last year.
In the match they showed fight and determination and will
pose some real problems to the top teams this year.
Top 14 Fixtures 2010/11
Our post-match review
was, let’s say, not pleasant. Philippe Saint André likes to
leave most of the analysis until the day after the game to
stop any emotions clouding his judgement. Sadly, on this
occasion no one could hide from the fact that the
performance just wasn’t good enough. While PSA was angry
with the mistakes we had made, what really got his goat was
the fact that it seemed like Bayonne wanted to win the match
more than us. It doesn’t matter what names you have on the
team sheet if you don’t match the physicality of the
opposition you are not going to win the match. Sadly that is
what happened against Bayonne.
Blessing in disguise
Funnily enough losing
the ‘Invaincu a Mayol’ may well have been a blessing in
disguise. All records are there to be broken and the
pressure of not losing at home in 18 months was probably
mounting. In fact I think a performance may have been coming
for a while and perhaps the team were guilty of expecting
things to happen as opposed to going out on the pitch to
make things happen. Not taking things for granted was one
of the team’s strengths last year and we have vowed not to
let it happen again.
The challenge that
faced us in the second weekend was Biarritz away, a team
that reached the final of the European Cup last season and a
team that Toulon had not beaten away from home in 29 years.
There is nothing like a challenge! After the loss to
Bayonne, training certainly increased in intensity and we
were determined to go to Biarritz and put in a performance
we could be proud of. It was also a very special week for
me as I was given the honour of captaining the side for the
first time in the absence of club captain Joe Van Niekerk
and normal stand-in skipper Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe. In
truth captaining a side with such experienced players as
Jonny Wilkinson, Carl Hayman and George Smith to name but a
few was not that difficult at all.
Winning Ugly
Our performance in the
match was completely the opposite of the performance we put
in against Bayonne. The aggression levels were there from
the kick-off and in the end we strangled Biarritz from start
to finish. It wasn’t pretty but sometimes winning away isn’t
and
the scoreline of 13-3 probably
flattered Biarritz in the end. It was a big win
because Biarritz will undoubtedly be there or thereabouts
come the end of the season. It was also great to see my
fellow Englishman Kris Chesney get his first try in five
years! Congratulations Ches!
As a team, we now feel
we have set the level that we need to reach week-in
week-out. We now go into a period of three matches in the
space of nine days which is going to test the strength of
all the squads in the Top 14. First up this Friday is
Racing-Métro 92 at the Stade Mayol. It's not going to be
easy as Racing are themselves coming off the back of a
disappointing performance against Montpellier last weekend.
We are expecting a backlash but this time in front of our
own fans we are determined to put on a good show.
A bientot
Previous columns:
12.08.10 -
Coming second is nowhere - we
want to win silverware now
02.08.10 -
All Revved Up And Ready To Go - It's Time
To End The Friendly Stuff
14.07.10 -
Fatherhood,
Ferraris and 40-degree heat - Pre-season Toulon stylee
14.05.10 -
