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The fall of the Galáticos– Toulon’s crumbling empire

By Ben Smith
The fall of the Galaticos - will there ever be another super team like Toulon again?

The bottom side in the Gallagher Premiership, the Newcastle Falcons, handed French superpower Toulon a historic, and rare loss at the Stade Mayol in the opening round of the Heineken Champions Cup.

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The three-time champions of Europe conceded just their second home loss to an English side in the competition, in what the commentators offered as the ‘lowest moment in Heineken Cup history’ for the French club.

As much as the upset left the home side stunned, Toulon’s league form in the Top 14 suggested this was possible with just two wins from their opening seven games, currently 12th on the ladder.

A high-risk recruitment strategy and head-coaching roundabout have sent the club on a downward spiral. The looming forces of the French Rugby Federation also conspire to topple Toulon’s power – what worked in the past will no longer work in the future.

“French rugby is living beyond its means,” Stade Francais president Thomas Savare lamented last year after a failed merger attempt with Racing, “Everyone has to realise it. We’re on an intravenous drip.”

Perhaps Toulon was the epitome of that, but their rise to dominance needs to be appreciated, for all the controversy they were a modern marvel – a super team built with a collection of the world’s best international talent, with enough years left in the tank to band together and achieve greatness.

It was a vision brought into existence by an eccentric owner who piled resources, mainly cash, into the club, taking it from division two to the top of Europe. If money can’t buy success, then how did Toulon win three-straight European titles and one Top 14 title? It was the closest thing to a free-market, open-borders rugby team. And it was glorious and full of excess.

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Just three French nationals started in the first two Champions Cup finals, with four starting in the third.

High-priced internationals Jonny Wilkinson, Bakkies Botha, Delon Armitage, Matt Giteau, Carl Hayman, Bryan Habana, Chris Masoe, Juan Smith, Drew Mitchell, Ali Williams, Juan Martin Hernandez, and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe were the backbone of this champion team, with French captain Mathieu Bastareud the only real French staple.

This world-class collection of talent presented a risk in itself – with so much relying on short-term rentals, you needed to replace 12 or 13 oranges at once when the last bit of juice was squeezed. And not only did you need many oranges, you needed the best grown Valencia’s known in the world. They just don’t grow on trees everywhere.

They managed to replace Wilkinson after European title number two with Matt Giteau and keep the music playing, winning a third in 2015. With the conclusion of the 2015 World Cup, a host of top talent would embark overseas and Toulon needed to haul most of it to secure their future.

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James O’Connor came and went, as did a brief flirtation with Quade Cooper. They secured world-class players Ma’a Nonu and Duane Vermeulen but slowly the net outflow of talent crept in.

Racing 92 secured the big-ticket signature of Dan Carter, which proved pivotal. Racing beat Toulon in the Top 14 final in 2016 and ended Toulon’s bid for four-straight European titles by knocking them out in the quarterfinals.

Toulon were still great but missed on a few signings which would keep them from maintaining dominance. The 2017 season would see another return to the Top 14 final, going down 22-16 to Clermont but another quarterfinal Champions Cup exit ensued.

The musical chairs continued last season like the last rally before the crash, when the additions of league convert Semi Radradra and Chris Ashton kept the team firing. With Ma’a Nonu, Malakai Fekitoa and JP Pieterson, the team had enough raw talent to compensate for the losses of Bryan Habana, Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell and James O’Connor.

But this season the music has stopped – and the fall has been sudden and immense, much like the debt-fuelled housing boom and crash, Toulon has hit the wall and crashed.

The departures of Nonu, Radradra, Ashton, Habana, Vermeulen, Chilichava and Fernandez Lobbe have come all too soon and the house of cards has fallen over. The net outflow of superstars has left the glamour club a shell of its former self. This might be rugby’s equivalent of the Roman empire – a once great ruler that will never regain its power.

Reports in January surfaced that FRF president Bernard Laporte is proposing rule changes to further limit overseas players competing in France in a league-wide crackdown, but has to wait 18 months to enforce rule changes.

Further limitations have already been put in place – the JIFF-rules were already strengthened in 2016 – enforcing teams to make a larger percentage of these selections in matchday squads and closing loopholes for teams to bring in overseas youth players.

With stronger regulations soon to be a reality, a spending spree post-2019 World Cup may not be possible. The age of excess is certainly on the way out, and Toulon will have to rebuild from the ground up to ever reach the same heights again.

But just like Rome – it may never happen again.

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Adrian 1 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

11 Go to comments
T
Trevor 4 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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B
Bull Shark 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

29 Go to comments
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