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Former Bristol player reveals unorthodox secrets to Castres Top 14 success
Castres coach Joe El Abd has lifted the lid on his side’s stunning Top 14 triumph last season and revealed some of the secrets to their success.
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El Abd’s side endured a rollercoaster of a campaign and only just scraped into the play-offs with victory in the last round of the regular season.
However, they went on to end the title hopes of Toulouse and then Racing 92 before clinching the Bouclier de Brennus with a 29-13 win against Montpellier at the Stade de France last month.
With victory they became the first side to claim the prestigious French title having entered the play-offs as the lowest seed.
Tries from Julien Dumora and Steve Mafi and the boot of Benjamin Udapilleta proved pivotal on a memorable night in Paris but El Abd insists the foundations for their success were laid many months earlier.
“My favourite French rugby quote is from Jean-Pierre Rives,” explained El Abd, a former Bristol favourite who began his coaching career with Oyonnax before following his boss Christophe Urios to Castres in 2015.
“Le rugby, c’est l’histoire d’un ballon avec des copains autour et quand il n’y a plus de ballon, il reste les copains.
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“The translation into English doesn’t do it justice, it basically states that rugby is a story about friends playing with a ball and when the ball is no longer there it’s just the friends that remain.
“The team spirit is also really important to us, it’s the way we see rugby. We haven’t got the biggest budget, we have the 11th biggest budget in the league, and while we have still got some very good players we have to think about how we are going to compete against what are literally international teams.
“Look at the amount of international caps that Montpellier had on the pitch in the final, something like 300, and South Africa were playing England the same weekend and only had around 150.
“You can clearly see how high the level of competition is and so we have to ask how are we going to beat these guys and gain an advantage? One of those ways is by having a team spirit that means we are greater than the sum of our parts.
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“How do we work that? It is something we work on all the time but we start the season with our ‘Olympiades’, which is a bit of a tradition where we try to take them out of their comfort zone.
“We don’t just do team building, we want to see how they behave in certain situations, and this year for example we had a theatre performance.”
The players and their families were divided into groups, given a working title of ‘What are the values of an Olympian?’ and tasked with putting on a show – with a little help from the local amateur dramatics club.
“The quality of the productions were incredible considering they had limited drama experience and only had three weeks to prepare,” enthused El Abd. “In the end the theatre was packed with over 700 people and I think the players even surprised themselves in what they achieved.
“The boys could easily have said, ‘what am I doing this for? I am a rugby player, I don’t want to be an actor!’ But it is not about that, it is about sacrificing something for the team, taking yourself out your comfort zone and all that helps when it comes to building bonds and links with each other.”
El Abd is also adamant that you must continue to nurture this side of your team and ‘water the flower’ throughout the season.
“It is equally important to keep it going, you can take your eye off the ball quite easily and I think we did that at times and when you do that I think you pay the consequence.
“We never want a player to feel like he is going to ‘work’ as that is the opposite of the experience we are trying to create.
“Our strategy was simple, spend more time with each other outside of the rugby setting and put smiles back on faces. I really don’t think it matters what you do. Sometimes we think that we are always spending time together due to the fact we train with each other everyday, however, I don’t think this time together always counts.”
El Abd also revealed that key changes to the team’s leadership group had a hugely positive impact on the squad and their subsequent success.
“The first tough decision we made was to change the composition of our leadership group,” he said. “This is never easy as you don’t know how people are going to react to such decisions.
“In the end the decision justified itself as the players no longer in the group went on to have great seasons and managed to lead in a different way. The ‘new’ inductees were also excellent and blossomed with the new responsibility.”
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It was up to the leadership group, or Les Conseil de Sages, to set and push standards on an off the field and they would meet regularly with coaches to discuss preparation, any potential problems and the key messages to relay to the rest of the playing squad.
“We didn’t leave a stone unturned,” said El Abd. “We would also discuss game scenarios and how we would react to certain situations. We often practice scenarios in training and it was good to discuss this to put everyone on the same page.”
This policy of putting players at the centre of proceedings extended to game-time with the use of huddles or ‘circles’, that were implemented to ensure everyone was in sync and focused.
“A great story highlighting the impact of our leadership, the conseil de sages, and the ‘circle’ was in the quarter-final against Toulouse,” said El Abd.
“We had previously discussed the possibility of getting a red card and how we would react to such a situation and as if by magic, our hooker got a red card with 20 minutes to go!”
“Our captain, having been prompted to think about such a situation the night before, called a circle and went on to recount the story of how Racing had beaten Toulon in the final in 2016 with 14 men and how we were going to do the same.
“He communicated in clear terms the principles we needed to follow in the final 20 minutes. He was calm, he gave belief the rest of the team belief and outlined what needed to be done.
“Sometimes you can lose focus and go off plan, but because we had talked about it, it helped us stay on plan and win the game and if we hadn’t won that game we would not have been champions.”
With some daylight now between their final victory and now, has the team’s incredible achievement hit home?
“It was fantastic,” recalled El Abd. “We often talk about the journey and it wasn’t all plain sailing. We haven’t got all the answers and we rode our luck along the way but when I look back it was amazing, especially thinking about the difficulties we encountered.”
“Did we believe we could do it? Yes. We always said that, right from the start that that was what we wanted to do but to actually do it was amazing.”
Plans are already underway for their title defence and El Abd insists Castres have no intention of resting on their laurels.
“If you look at history, it has often been tough for the champions but the last time Castres were champions they got to the final the following year. It is tough but it is also possible to have a great season.”
Are the champions likely to repeat the process of this year?
“If repeat the process is continually look to develop, look to get better, then yes, we will repeat that process. We will not be repeating the season we just had as that would mean we would be standing still. So we will be looking to continue our process, keep looking to get better all the time.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Had hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
6 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
28 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
83 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
83 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
13 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
13 Go to commentsI remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
4 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
28 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
4 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
4 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
13 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
6 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
6 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
6 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
28 Go to comments