The fall of the Galáticos– Toulon’s crumbling empire
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.
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.
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.
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.
Comments on RugbyPass
Pick 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.
15 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?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
15 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
15 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
15 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
15 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
15 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
15 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to comments