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'Hopefully he won’t be cursing me': Jones’ first Toulon interview

(RCT TV screengrab)

Alun Wyn Jones has given his first interview as a Toulon player, outlining what he hopes to achieve during his short-term contract at the Top 14 club. The world’s most capped Test player had been named on May 1 as part of the Wales training squad for the upcoming Rugby World Cup in France.

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However, he has instead turned up across the Channel earlier than anticipated in a very different role. Having retired from Test rugby on May 19 rather than commit to Wales’ arduous preparation campaign, his two-game UK tour as skipper of the Barbarians was followed by the July 7 announcement that he had signed for Toulon.

The soon-to-be 37-year-old ex-Ospreys lock has now arrived in the south of France and has started training ahead of a Top 14 season that will begin on August 19 away to Lyon.

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He has since sat down with the Toulon media crew for a five-minute video interview in which he spoke about his delight over his move from Wales and how he hopes to lay a good foundation for when Dan Biggar and all the club’s other international players return from the World Cup.

It’s great to be here, to finally get out here,” he began. “I have the opportunity to come to Toulon and pull on this famous jersey and I’m really looking forward to it. I have been very fortunate to play for a long time all over the world with a lot of great players.

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“I still want to play rugby and the opportunity particularly to do that in Toulon with a hungry group of players who want to build on the success of last year, with a lot of players away at Rugby World Cup, I felt it was in many ways the right timing. The planets aligned for me to do this now having played for as long as I had.

“Having spoken to them [Toulon] in a couple of meetings, they were aware of the players who would be away. Hopefully, I can bring a bit of experience to add to the group and build on the foundation of the success they had last year.

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“As it stands, I’m here on a short-term contract until the end of November but hopefully I can make enough of a mark to build on last year’s success and build the foundation for the players to come back after a successful World Cup.

“Hopefully I can respond in my performances and show what the game means to me. Obviously, when walking down here to do this interview, you see the players that have gone before you and what they have achieved (in pictures on the wall), so I have got to earn the respect of players, coaches and particularly supporters.

“I’m hugely aware of the Welsh players who have been here and had success with Toulon. Gethin Jenkins, Leigh Halfpenny, Rhys Webb was here as well, even Eifion Lewis-Roberts. There is a strong theme of Welsh players who have been here.

“I haven’t had an opportunity to speak to Dan yet because I think he is in the Swiss Alps somewhere being beasted by Warren (Gatland), but hopefully he won’t be cursing me too much and we put the team in good stead for when he comes back from the World Cup.”

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Jones added that he was looking forward to settling in as quickly as possible with the new French season just weeks away from starting. “To get up to speed as quick as I can, to improve my language, and ultimately get into the groove as quick as I can, rugby and within the group,” he said when asked about his immediate priorities.

“Things have happened pretty quickly for me and sometimes that is a good thing. You don’t have time to think and just get on with it. One thing I am hopeful of is rugby is a universal language and ultimately a lot of things don’t change and hopefully I can show what it means to be here.

“There is expectation; you see the way the fans support Toulon. If I can answer some of those questions about why I am here, what I have done and what I can do I will be doing the right thing. Also, know a bit of the history of Felix Mayol, it is important and hopefully I can add in a very small way to the history.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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