LES BLEUS BROTHERS
BACK IN 2012, I had the misfortune to be present at the Top 14 final. It was a dire spectacle, one of the worst games of rugby that I can remember.
Jonny Wilkinson’s Toulon lost to Toulouse 18-12 in a match devoid of tries, invention or ambition. The victors owed their success to the boot of All Black Luke McAlister but one left the Stade de France wondering how a Toulouse team of such scintillating talent could produce 80 minutes of mind-numbing tedium.
We didn’t know it at the time but that Top 14 title – Toulouse’s third in five seasons – would bring down the curtain on their era of extraordinary success. As well as the domestic domination (they also won six titles between 1994 and 2001), the club from the deep south of France were crowned European champions on four occasions and for two decades their players formed the backbone of les Bleus.
Within five years of that 2012 triumph, Toulouse finished the season one place above the relegation zone of the Top 14. Instead of the Champions Cup,
