Boudjellal reveals leaving date as Toulon soap saga takes fresh twist
The rugby soap opera that is Toulon is set to take more major twists, with overarching storylines that will affect everything for years to come.
First, a disclaimer: For those old enough to remember these things, this is not – quite – Dallas’s Who shot JR? level, or Bobby Ewing’s miraculous shower resurrection. Nor have we reached UFO stage from notorious soapy serial killer hotspot Hollyoaks; or the first death of Eastenders’ Dirty Den – and we’ve definitely not hit St Elsewhere’s everything-was-all-a-dream finale.
But there can be no doubt that the daily lives and loves of everyday highly paid sporting folk on the south coast of France will never be the same again. And not just because Toulon are currently 11th in the Top 14, 26 points behind leaders Clermont and 14 off the play-off places.
Let’s start with the big one: Owner Mourad Boudjellal has revealed he will leave the club … in just over four years.
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Everything follows from this. The heart-on-his-sleeve boss revealed recently in an interview with L’Equipe that his final sure-to-be-a-tearjerker episode will come in June 2023.
“I have four years left and then, for sure, I’ll move on – if I don’t go, you have to shoot me down,” he said.
It probably won’t come to actual shooting, but he admitted owning Toulon taken its toll since he arrived as a fresh-faced comicbook baddie in 2006, when the club was in the second-tier ProD2. “If I don’t leave, it means I’m going to die. The life of a president is very stressful. But there is an addictive side: we know it’s not good, but we continue.”
But, like all good soap opera kingpins, he’s promised a few fireworks before he goes.
And they begin – in honest-to-goodness daytime soap-style – with a mass character cull. The 2018/19 has been, in Boudjellal’s own words, ‘a saison de merde’ – and he warned fans to expect to wade through more merde to come as the club realigns itself.
He has promised major changes in personnel coming soon to a screen near you, with between 12 and 15 arrivals and numerous departures in the pipeline ahead of next season – with some major announcements in the weeks to come.
“A big change is coming,” Boudjellal said. “I decided that after the defeat in Edinburgh, when I posted the video of Snow White cleaning on Twitter.
— Mourad Boudjellal (@mouradhfc) October 20, 2018
“It’s time to bid farewell to guys who may not have been European champions. That way, we can stop talking about the past, stop comparing. I’m going on a new project. In the coming weeks, there will be many announcements in both directions.”
Eight of those 12 to 15 arrivals have already been confirmed, headlined by Eben Etzebeth, Nehe Milner-Skudder and Baptiste Serin. Importantly, for French player-quota regulations as much as Boudjellal’s ‘new project’, five are French. Six are under 25 and none are over 30.
Meanwhile, so far, seven players’ contracts have been renewed. None of this batch of players, which includes Anthony Belleau and Louis Carbonel, are over 25. Five are French.
Montpellier-bound 32-year-old Guilhem Guirado is the big departure after five years at the club, while Malakai Fekitoa is on his way to Wasps. To date, five players are known to be leaving at the end of the season. Apart from Georgian academy hooker Badri Alkhazashvili, all are over 25.
And, looking to Boudjellal’s ‘new project’: Juandre Kruger, Mamuka Gorgodze, Francois Trinh-Duc, and JP Pietersen are among seven players at the end of their contracts. Some may get new deals but the trend appears to be for younger players.
Boudjellal’s comments also suggest the club is willing to do a Stade Francais, and agree terms to cut loose other players who are not yet in the final year of their current deals.
Wales fans may hope, despite his recent tweets to the contrary, this means Rhys Webb could head home sooner than expected. But one favourite for the exit door is Josua Tuisova. Rumours have been swirling over his future at the club for more than a year – with Lyon, in particular, repeatedly said to be keen on his services.
The youth factor was lost in the headlines when Etzebeth and Milner-Skudder were revealed as future Toulon players in December. A new centre will be developed to replace the prefabs sprouting all over the training ground at Berg. It will be operational by 2020.
The idea is to build what the club and Boudjellal have billed as a “factory of champions”.
“Not a single talent from the region should escape us,” the president said at a special meeting to unveil the plans in December.
“We want a reference system and standards for all youth teams with the RCT label. With the desire to put players at the centre of the system but also to promote in-house training for educators,” added Laurent Emmanuelli, head of sports policy at the club.
“I signed up for a club project,” Patrice Collazo said at the time “The main axis is to put the institution back at the centre of everything. To know what it means to play for this club, to embody its values.
“The RCT must regain a strong identity that encompasses everyone from mini rugby to pros, but also alumni. The sports project will be based on a team built with players from the training centre and the region, but also with the possibility of seeking skills with a margin of progress in the Top 14 or Pro D2.
“And finally, foreigners who bring real added value”.
Boudjellal has spoken of his ‘Made in France’ vision of Toulon’s future previously. But this was the first concrete development towards that future. In it, big-name overseas stars have been reduced to third in the list of priorities, behind local, then French players.
The President’s 2023 ‘retirement’ was the culmination of a series of events that had a certain inevitability about them.
His big-spending quickly catapulted Toulon out of the ProD2 and into the upper echelons of the Top 14. A ProD2 championship in 2008, a Top 14 crown in 2014 and three European titles (2013, 2014, 2015) is a pretty decent return in 13 years. Remember, too, that the club were domestic finalists in 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2017, and Challenge Cup runners up in 2010 and 2012.
But the trophy cabinet has been bare since 2015. And, though Toulon had famously been self-financing for several years, Boudjellal was forced to dig deep in 2017, when a legal dispute with former kit suppliers attracted the interest of French rugby’s financial police. He took a greater stake in the club for his €2million bailout.
It was then he first announced his new homegrown ‘model’ for the club. The logic is undeniable. Toulon were struggling to keep pace with the billionaire-owned likes of Racing 92 and Montpellier. Lyon, too, have increasingly had money to burn, so Boudjellal started casting about for other investors to share the load.
He found that support last year, in the shape of ex-biopharma company boss Bernard Lemaître, who bought a 25% stake in the club – and who looks almost certain to be the next president, when Boudjellal finally exits, stage left.
Since then changes have come thick and fast, as Lemaître began to stamp his own mark on the club. “We are on a five-year development plan; the goal is to get Toulon back the level it once had, but with different structures and organisation that, beyond Mourad Boudjellal and Bernard Lemaître, will allow it to continue,” he told L’Equipe in December.
Five years. Well, actually less. Boudjellal told fans at the meeting at which the new training complex, Etzebeth and Milner-Skudder were unveiled that season-ticket holders who kept the faith for four years would get their fifth season ticket free if the club had won no silverware in that time.
We’ll just have to wait and see on that one.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments