Peter Bills: Toulon are on the money and mean business
He's 5ft very little, is the proprietor and publisher of 'Soleil Productions', a comic-book business, and as far as I know, has never played rugby seriously in his life.
He's a funny chap, too -- he hovers down on the touchline during matches in a nervous manner and he is never far away from a camera lens.
No matter, Mourad Boudjellal will celebrate his 50th birthday in June and the rugby club he owns, RC Toulon, is attempting to give him a rather special gift -- the French Championship Shield, the famous 'Bouclier de Brennus'.
Toulon haven't won it since 1992 and at various stages in the years since then, the club beside the Mediterranean hit such turbulent financial waters they were in danger of being submerged.
At one point, they had a €1.5m deficit, were demoted to Division 2 in 2000 and then struggled to get back among the elite. Eventually, they won promotion after five years of struggle in the lower league, but immediately slipped back down again the following season.
Equate all that, then, with the state of RC Toulon today. With this coming weekend's final round of French Top 14 fixtures, Toulon are a point clear at the top of the table. If they win at Brive on Saturday, they will go into the Championship play-offs as the top-placed side.
Furthermore, they have qualified for next season's Heineken Cup and will play Connacht for a place in the final of the Amlin Challenge Cup tomorrow week.
But under Boudjallel's ownership, Toulon have done an awful lot more. Off the field, they have galvanised a region once famed for its rugby prowess. Racing Nice, along the Mediterranean coast, were French Championship runners-up in 1983 before disappearing into anonymity -- to an extraordinary extent.
Last weekend, Toulon moved their home fixture against reigning champions Perpignan from their 13,700-capacity Felix Mayol stadium in the heart of Toulon, to the 60,000-capacity Stade Velodrome in Marseille. 58,250 turned up, a triumph for Toulon-born Boudjallel and what he has achieved at the French naval port town.
He's done it chiefly by opening his cheque book very wide indeed. Some of the game's finest players have been lured by the riches on offer.
Toulon have always had style. The club emblem is a bunch of sweet-smelling spring flowers lily of the valley, and the reason is buried deep in the pages of history. On May 1, 1895, Felix Mayol, the popular concert hall singer from Toulon, went to Paris to perform his first concert. He was greeted at the station by a lady admirer who handed him a bunch of lily of the valley, a flower traditionally given on May Day in France.
Mayol's concert was a notable success and lily of the valley became his personal emblem. Not long after the First World War ended, Mayol bought the land where Toulon Rugby Club's home now is, and donated it to the club. Lily of the valley became the club's emblem, too.
But, in modern times, Boudjallel has needed more than just a sense of history to revive his home-town club. He has spent a fortune recruiting top-line players and coaches.
fortunes
Coaches like the Australian Tim Lane, New Zealander Tana Umaga and now Frenchman Philippe Saint-Andre have been hired to improve the team's fortunes. None have come cheap, but their wages pale into insignificance alongside those of the players.
Jonny Wilkinson, currently driving the club towards the title with his metronomic goal kicking, is said to be earning close to €1m a season. Umaga, still playing besides coaching the backs, is reckoned to have been paid around €300,000 for 10 matches when he first arrived.
In no particular order, ex-Australia captain George Gregan; Victor Matfield, Joe van Niekerk and Lawrence Sephaka of South Africa; former All Blacks Jerry Collins, Andrew Mehrtens and Anton Oliver and England's World Cup-winning wing from 2003, Dan Luger, have all been signed.
Nor does the spending stop now Toulon have been successful. All Black prop Carl Hayman, the best tight-head prop in the world, has signed a two-year contract, starting from next September, at €620,000 a season.
Other recruits for next season already include wing Paul Sackey from London Wasps and Sale Sharks lock and captain Dean Scofield.
Get the extent of the challenge Connact face in their semi-final against Toulon?
- Peter Bills
Irish Independent
