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Turmoil In Toulon: French Rugby's Greatest Soap Opera

Mourad Boudjellal

Three weeks into the Top 14 season and there is already talk of a big team sacking their coach, writes James Harrington.

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ATTENTION! Urgence! Au secours! (as they say in France). The Top 14 is not going according to plan.

After three rounds the relative paupers Brive and La Rochelle occupy the top two slots, while star-studded moneybags sides Toulon, Montpellier and Bordeaux languish in 11th, 12th and 13th places.

Thankfully Racing 92, Clermont and Toulouse are keeping the flag flying for the league’s elite.

The early pace-setters deserve their lofty positions. La Rochelle followed their first away win in 518 days with a second victory on the road just seven days later.

Brive, meanwhile, duked their way to a first win in a decade at Toulon’s Stade Mayol. That win was again courtesy of the howitzer boot of fullback Gaetan Germain, and the collective headless chicken impression from Toulon – with the honourable exception of Gaetan’s opposite number Leigh Halfpenny, who salvaged some club pride with another perfect penalty-tee performance.

Just three games into the new season, the word ‘crisis’ can clearly be heard in the corridors of power at the Top 14 soap opera club Toulon.

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The fact is head coach Diego Dominguez, who took over from Bernard Laporte this summer, seems to be on borrowed time – just three competitive matches into a job it was always doubtful he was actually ready for.

Club President Mourad Boudjellal told a press conference after the Brive defeat that he was at the ‘limits of his patience’ with a side that boasts 800 international caps but could not win at home.

Dominguez, he said, has ‘one last chance’ to prove he’s the man for the big chair. That last chance is at Toulouse – who have had the measure of Toulon in recent meetings.

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The magnanimous Boudjellal, at least, said they do not have to win. But he is looking for a much better performance.

Unfortunately for Dominguez, Toulon’s Top 14 fixture list does not get any easier after the Toulouse game. The following week they’re at Racing 92. Then there’s Clermont and Montpellier at home, and finally a visit to La Rochelle before the European Champions Cup kicks off in October. That starts with the visit of reigning champions Saracens.

There was a collective ‘huh?’ when, at the start of the 2015/16 season, Boudjellal revealed Dominguez would eventually replace Laporte as head coach.

There’s no denying Dominguez’s playing credentials. The Argentina-born Italian international is one of only five players to have scored more than 1,000 Test points. He played in three World Cups, and was the mainstay of the Italian side in the early years of the Six Nations. At club level, he won the French championship in 1998 with Stade Francais.

But he arrived at Toulon with precisely no coaching experience. The idea, Boudjellal said, was for him to develop his nascent coaching skills under the guidance of Laporte before taking sole charge of a squad of highly paid egos.

Really.

Rumours that it was not going according to plan quickly surfaced. Dominguez was supposed to take over in January 2016. But Laporte stuck around until the end of a trophyless season amid reports that his successor was – unaccountably – not ready.

Then ex-Montpellier coach Fabien Galthie said he’d been speaking to Toulon about taking over the big chair, despite the fact that, due to convoluted and frankly weird French bureaucracy, he is still technically on the books at Montpellier, even though he got the push there in November 2014.

Regardless of what happens with Dominguez, Galthie is out of the reckoning until at least November, when an employment tribunal is set to rule on various aspects of his dismissal.

Back in Toulon, there followed a spat over the arrival of forwards coach Marc Del Maso at the start of pre-season training. Dominguez reportedly wanted to appoint his own backroom team, but Boudjellal went ahead and gave Del Maso the key job and presented his head coach with a fait accompli.

Now, it appears the former France hooker and his predecessor Jacques Delmas – who is still at Toulon but whose responsibilities have been reduced to coaching lineouts and a pitchside shouting role – are not playing nicely.

Another recent appointment, defence coach Grant Doorey, has reportedly been shown the door after little more than a month at the club.

Stick around, keep watching. The Toulon soap opera will continue. And don’t be surprised if Boudjellal decides he’s the man to coach the team – after all a fortune made from comic books and graphic novels is the perfect training for a Top 14 club coach, right?

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 3 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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