Ask the Opposition - RC Toulon

[big mervyn]

Is that not Ashton and Hartley, Rooster?

[Russ]

How can you stand by whilst a knob like Delon Armitage is on your payroll?

[Bart S]

Is that not Ashton and Hartley, Rooster?

Looks more like Mad Bernard Laporte amd his evil twin brother to me.

[Bart S]

When they played in Toulouse last week, did any of their fans visit trevor Brennan's bar De Danu and if so, what was the guinness like.

[ruckover]

Would they be as willing to see Steffon Armitage go as Boudjellal appears to be?

Do they feel that the mass spending in the Top14 is what's harming the national team?

Is Matt Giteau as good as Jonny Wilkinson or will that gap never be filled?

[fermain]

Given the high investment in some T14 sides, how well funded are the lower league sides, and how can they compete when it comes to newly promoted teams verses the the richer T14 sides?

[Koonak]

Why don't the coaches trim some blubber off Armitage and FatBastard? They are running around like Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

My question - would tweedledum and tweedledee like to sign up for UR when they are over- or any of the Toulon players for that matter ??

[Dave]

Any luck with this Loki?

[big mervyn]

Ze pen of my aunt is in ze garden

[Tevez]

Spoke to a load of Toulon supporters last night:

Johnny Wilkinson is God - France's most loved (perhaps only loved) Englishman
Matt Giteau is no Johnny Wilkinson
Not suprisingly they are happy for Toulon to be excellent even at the national team's expense
There is huge expectation each year now at Toulon...new supporters forgetting that they were Pro 2 not so long ago
Understood non-Toulon fans' view of Felon Armitage

Fans not confident about tomorrow's result(!)

Off field very keen to see Belfast (tours and pubs....had all heard of the Crown) plus Giants Causeway (40 going today, 12 on Sunday) - really enjoying NI so far

Finally, they will all be bussing their way from Toulon to Nice and back for our match in January....plenty of room and a welcome on board for Ulster supporters!

[Neill_M]

Just out of interest re the game in Janaury, are these supporters buses organised through the club (official) or is it just done by groups of supporters (unofficial)?

[Tevez]

Buses that we spoke about are organised by Supporters Clubs. Toulon (like many French teams) have a series of supporters clubs who arrange travel to the big matches. One of the supporters clubs, the RCT Bulls even chartered an airplane to go to the final last year....

[Neill_M]

Cheers

[Loki]

Any luck with this Loki?

I registered midweek but only received clearance today -so the q's have just gone up here: http://forums.rugbyrama.fr/showthread.p ... ost3181419 hopefully we'll get some good responses, they seem to have a very healthy forum there!

I'll be travelling from about 4am tomorrow so the answers will hopefully go up Monday.

as an aside - anyone kicking about Ravers tomorrow for a pre-match pint?

[Loki]

unfortunately this week didn't quite take off; the Toulon fans weren't overly enamoured with Google Translate or "biased questions", which is a little unfortunate.

la mecque 83 did get into the swing of things with a few thoughts on Ulster though:

The Province of Ulster is probably one of the most difficult team to gain a win over in Europe - only 1 Defeat against the Sarries on your last 18 games at Ravenhill, which for me is a "temple" of European rugby in the same way as Thomond Park.

On your current team:
even having lost a few very good players - Afoa to Gloucester, Court to London Irish, Ruan Pienaar injured and Ferris to forced retirement - you will definitely be very difficult to play against at home - or you are almost unbeatable.

Ulster players I would like to have in my team -
Rory Best
Jackson
And Tommy Bowe

On Toulon - Honestly , no, we do think we will win; winning away would be a feat. I would take a Defensive Bonus (LBP) - that would be nice.

given the way the game played out this is perhaps a little surprising - however it's nice to see how the team / stadium is thought of by a fan of probably the strongest team around. ah well.

I don't think I'll do one for Dragons as I've a bit of an impossible few weeks coming up; next one is likely to be Ospreys in a few weeks time.