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Questionable Toulon move to have major say on Glasgow and Munster fate

Toulon's Argentinian number eight Facundo Isa (CL) and Toulon's French full-back Melvyn Jaminet (CR) react at the end of the European Champions Cup rugby union match between Rugby Club Toulonnais (Toulon) and Munster at the Stade Mayol in Toulon, south-eastern France on January 13, 2023. (Photo by CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty Images)

Ahead of a trip to Scotstoun Stadium tomorrow to face Glasgow Warriors in the Investec Champions Cup, Toulon may have come the closest to producing rugby’s equivalent of throwing in the towel, and they have done so before the match has even started.

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Heading into the final match of the pool stages in this year’s Champions Cup, the three-time winners sit at the bottom of Pool 3 with zero wins and three losses. With that in mind, director of rugby Pierre Mignoni has fielded a squad that suggests his attention has already switched back to the Top 14 and the visit by La Rochelle the following week.

What is stranger than the team they have fielded though is the fact that they have given in while still standing a perfectly good chance of progressing to the last 16.

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Alex Sanderson on Sale Sharks’ challenging week in SA

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Alex Sanderson on Sale Sharks’ challenging week in SA

While they do sit bottom of the table, a win over Glasgow while depriving the hosts of any bonus points, would see them climb into fourth place in the pool, which is a qualification spot. Then they would be reliant on the unbeaten Exeter Chiefs, who need a win, to beat the winless Bayonne at the Stade Jean-Dauger and they would progress. It is perfectly doable, but the Toulon coaching staff do not seem to think so.

After falling 29-18 to Munster at home last week, changes were expected for this Toulon team – 14, however, is excessive. Completely dropping three players who were recently called up to France’s Guinness Six Nations squad (Charles Ollivon, Melvyn Jaminet and Esteban Abadie) is rarely conducive to a winning formula, and dropping the final member of the France squad, Matthias Halagahu, to the bench is not going to help either.

The bizarrity does not end there though, as Jeremy Sinzelle is set to start his first game at fly-half since 2019, with Wales great Dan Biggar completely dropped.

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The winners here are, of course, Glasgow, who know a win will ensure they progress to the knockout stages.

Munster, on the other hand, will be less pleased to see this squad. Though the reigning United Rugby Championship winners are in a strong position to progress, a Glasgow win on Friday will mean that they will have to beat the high-flying Northampton Saints on Saturday at Thomond Park to help their seeding for the next round.

Knowing there is a glimmer of hope that they could actually finish second in Pool 3 (and therefore gain a home tie in the round of 16), Munster were always going to head into the Saints match seeking a big win, so Toulon’s team may not have a major impact on their thinking. Glasgow, though, will be over the moon seeing their team.

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BigMaul 307 days ago

Happens every year. There will be plenty of others.

I really felt for London Irish last year. They basically needed 1 more point than Northampton from the last game of the regular season. LI duly got their bonus point win. Unfortunately, Sarries had already qualified for the playoffs and fielded a second string team against Northampton. Northampton got the bonus point win and LI missed out on the playoffs. They went bust a couple of weeks later.

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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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