Six Super Rugby Heroes Who Turned Out To Be Top 14 Zeroes

Meet some of the big stars of southern hemisphere rugby who found the game in France is somewhat tougher than they may have been led to believe

Contrary to the opinion of many a Super Rugby-raised armchair critic, the French Top 14 is not quite the cushy cash-rich pension plan enjoyed by old All Blacks, along with a litany of less-deserving has-beens, coulda-beens and never-weres.

Here, in no particular order, are just a few of the hyped-up Super Rugby stars who have struggled to cope with life on the other side of the world in the longest and toughest domestic competition in world rugby.

PIRI WEEPU
In a French adventure as short as it was unsweet, 2011 World Cup-winner Piri Weepu joined ambitious Top 14 side Oyonnax on a two-year deal at the start of the 2015/16 season following a brief spell in the UK.

His contract ended the following January in what was described at the time as: ‘an amicable separation between both parties’. How amicable that separation actually was is in some doubt, as Weepu is claiming €500,000 from the club.

His time at Oyonnax – a side that has since dropped to the ProD2 – was dogged by injury and overshadowed by allegations concerning his behaviour.

Thanks to a little help from former All Black teammate Sitiveni Sivivatu, an officially unemployed Weepu next popped up training with Saint-Sulpice-sur-Tarn, an amateur side playing in the sixth tier of French rugby, and was last seen plying his trade with ProD2 club Narbonne.

MORNE STEYN
To give the South African his due, he has stuck it out at Stade Francais  – but for the longest time it looked certain that the words ‘mutual consent’ would appear on a press release about the untimely end of his three-year deal, signed in August 2013.

In an interview in May 2014, Stade’s ever-diplomatic president Thomas Savare described Steyn’s first year at the club – in which he started just nine out of 26 domestic games – as ‘one of the season’s disappointments’.

The following January when he barely registered on the team list, featuring in a couple of outings in the competition-no-one-wants, the European Challenge Cup, and a little bench-warming work, he finally got a chance at a Top 14 start. And promptly got himself sent off for doing this.

Stade’s coach Gonzalo Quesada is another of king of the understatement. All he said afterwards was: “He wasted a great opportunity. There’s not much more to say.”

Steyn, at least, was able to turn his Parisian fortunes around, making the most of a last chance when Plisson was injured, to marshall Stade to Top 14 glory in 2014 and then sign a two-year contract extension, but it was a close-run thing.

DIGBY IOANE
If Steyn’s start at Stade was difficult, Ioane’s was desperate. He arrived in 2013, after a successful spell with Queensland Reds and the Wallabies, but – like so many before him, in and out of rugby, struggled with the change in culture and language.

Rumour has it he sounded out then-Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie about an early return to Australia before the end of the first season of his two-year contract. In the end, he stuck out the full term of his deal – scoring five times in 25 matches – before moving to Honda Heat in Japan.

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QUADE COOPER
Unlike his counterpart at Stade Francais, Toulon president and cartoonish moustache-twirling Top 14 baddie Mourad Boudjellal is rarely one to mince his words. After one particularly poor performance, he was asked whether Australian 10 Cooper would ever fill the big boots left by a certain Jonny Wilkinson at the club.

His response? “It’s difficult to go from foie gras to pâté.”

Cooper’s card was irredeemably marked. After initial excitement following the signing, Boudjellal never rated Cooper in the same league as Wilkinson, Matt Giteau or veteran Frederic Michalak.

Cooper struggled to force his way into the star-studded Toulon side, managing just 15 games before activating a trapdoor clause in his two-year deal that allowed him to leave at the end of his first season.

ZAC GUILDFORD
One of the game’s troubled souls, Guildford has found trouble wherever his career has taken him – whether it’s in New Zealand, Australia or in France.

Shortly after making his debut for Clermont, he was injured in a late-night assault in the town and forced to miss a couple of games. He then suddenly quit halfway through a two-year deal and returned home, citing personal reasons. Sadly, as has been reported far and wide, his troubles have continued.

DAN CARTER
Yes, the double World Cup-winning Dan Carter and routinely acknowledged best 10 ever. Not, it has to be said, the current one, who’s living it up in Paris on a tasty €1m-plus-a-year deal in between playing some seriously good rugby for Racing 92.

No, we’re talking about the Dan Carter who, in June 2008, took a sabbatical from New Zealand rugby and signed a six-month contract with then-Top 14 side Perpignan, for a reported £30,000 per game.

He only managed five games before rupturing his achilles against Stade Francais.

The Catalan side went on to win the Top 14 title without their expensive signing, but have struggled since on and off the field, and are currently in the bottom half of the French second-tier ProD2. Even today, on some streets in the Catalan city, Carter’s name is Mudd, with many blaming his inflated salary eight years ago for the club’s current parlous state.