Top 14: Turmoil in Toulon as John Connolly is called in by
president Mourad Boudjellal
03 November 2008
 The
ongoing turmoil at Toulon continued this weekend with
Friday’s Halloween horror show – a 42-20 defeat at Montauban
(Read
Report) – followed by confirmation that John
Connolly had been invited to join the club.
The former Wallabies and Stade Francais coach has been asked
to undertake a performance audit by millionaire boss Mourad
Boudjellal as he seeks to get to grips with his faltering
team.
Although Connolly’s official brief is to merely identify why
things are going so wrong on the pitch it appears like
another nail in the coffin of head coach Tana Umaga as the
Top 14 newcomers struggle to find their feet.
Umaga’s position has been under intense scrutiny all season
and Connolly’s arrival was first mooted back in October.
Hardly a week goes by without Toulon making headlines of one
sort of another and the ongoing soap opera looks set to
continue now that Connolly has been drafted in to work
alongside the increasingly beleaguered Umaga.
Rumours of player unrest have abounded for months and only
last week forwards coach Jean-Jacques Crenca was sacked,
with Aubin Heuber returning to the club in his place (Read
Report).
That did little to change their immediate playing fortunes
with Umaga seemingly inured to the shambolic nature of their
performance as they slumped to a 42-3 deficit after just 60
minutes’ play.
“This week has been difficult,” he conceded afterwards,
before adding, “I believe we showed what we could do in the
final 20 minutes.”
That was a disingenuous summation given that Montauban had
sent on a raft of substitutions by then and were merely
going through the motions after already running in six
tries.
The former All Black looked a weary soul as he looked on
from the sidelines, but denied the result (and performance)
had further harmed his position.
“I don’t feel any more under threat than I did before the
match. That is part and parcel of a coach’s life,” he said.
The only good news for Umaga is the likely return of
controversial rugby league convert Sonny ‘Bill’ Williams in
a fortnight’s time. The former NRL star has been sidelined
since the opening week with a leg fracture.
Meanwhile, Connolly is expected in Toulon today (Monday)
with Boudjellal keen to “understand why things were not
working”.
Connolly’s starting point, perhaps, would be to say that you
can’t merely buy star names and expect them to gel. There
has to be a togetherness, a team unity, for a club to
flourish. The likes of Joe van Niekerk and Jerry Collins can
lead by example, as indeed they did on Friday night, but the
obvious lack of cohesion and belief was apparent for all to
see.
Toulon’s woeful defence will also have to be addressed as
they missed tackles time and again against a disciplined and
free-flowing Montauban clearly feeding off the confidence of
their away win at Clermont the previous weekend.
* Perpignan’s English captain Perry Freshwater will be out
of action for six weeks after sustaining ankle ligament
damage during Saturday’s 31-7 win at Mont-de-Marsan.
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