A romantic view of how the game should be played and in all honesty could only be carried off by the French, but it would be great if more coach's had this outlook.
When Toulouse begin their defence of the Heineken Cup at Stade Ernest Wallon this afternoon, the television cameras will occasionally pan to the touchline, and pick out a tall, lean figure with a lion's mane of curly greying hair. The chances are that Guy Novès, the man who has guided the Real Madrid of rugby to three European titles, will be standing with his chin on one hand, and a look of total involvement on his face. Afterwards, he will deliver his verdict in his singing Midi accent, quickfire sentences punctuated with his watchwords: "humility", "respect for the adversary", "discipline" and, perhaps above all, "le jeu". This last is a purely French concept, almost mystical in its overtones of expansive, imaginative rugby, where winning is about pushing the limits of what can be done with the oval ball.
"We always come back to le jeu," says the Toulouse director of rugby since 1993. "We attempt to maintain continuity and remain with this philosophy, which was born in the 1980s. Claude Lebattu put it in place, it was improved by Jean-Claude Skrela, and now it is kept up by me."
Intertwined with this homespun theory, simultaneously feeding off it and feeding it, is another: tradition. Toulouse, explains Novès, is unique in that almost everyone involved, particularly the trainers, is a former player at the club. He was a wing whose career at Le Stade lasted 12 years to 1987, including two titles, in 1985 and 1986, and seven caps for France.
Michel Marfaing, who directs the club's centre de formation, was a wing, and the coaches of the youth team, Thierry Lacroix and Emile Ntamack, need no introduction."It's like a cow being branded," says a former Toulousain, Thomas Castaignède. "It's in your skin. People in England talk about a Leicester identity: at Toulouse, it's even stronger."
"The majority of our teams are trained by former players," says Novès. "It is a fundamental philosophy: the club creates trainers who have been formed by the club." When he retires - at 51, it is not something he has in mind at present, although inevitably he has been suggested as a possible successor to the national coach Bernard Laporte - his place will be taken by another Toulousain, and the philosophy of le jeu will continue seamlessly.
Novès is, however, keen to make one thing clear. At Toulouse, tradition and le jeu are not sacrosanct for they own sake, but because they bring results. "We are not dreamers. Rugby is about winning and this has a proven record. We have a game based on moving the ball around, but we don't believe we can do what we did in 1985, it is merely our basic philosophy. We keep it because it works."
Given his belief in Toulouse's identity, Novès has an equally strong belief in the identity of club rugby in a wider sense. He has been one of Laporte's harshest critics over the issue of club v country, and after last Saturday's extravaganza at Stade de France, where Toulouse were defeated by Stade Français in front of nearly 80,000 people, he made the point that if club rugby could achieve something like this, it should be valued.
"Such events push French rugby forward, and rugby everywhere," he says. "What's possible in France is possible in other countries."
Novès does not deny that, at present, French club rugby is moving ahead of England, but it has only done so, he says, because coaches on the other side of the Channel realised they had no choice after coming up against the English clubs early in the professional era following the inception of the Heineken Cup.
"I have massive respect for what has been achieved in England. Clubs such as Bath, Leicester and Wasps showed up our weak areas - remember we lost by 77 points to Wasps in 1997. That meant we had to move forward. The English clubs obliged us to raise our standards in order to compete." That meant eliminating indiscipline, improving defences and learning how to win away from home.
"The European Cup has been decisive in making us improve," says Novès. "We had stayed in our own small garden and were not competitive. We had won six French championships in six years, and my president said to me 'it's good to be French champions, but we haven't yet been European champions against the English clubs.' That made us work, and now we are among the top 10."*
What does Novès bring to the party? "He's able to make you believe you can beat anyone," says Castaignède. "When you pull on the jersey, it's like a small boy pulling on a Superman jersey." Novès would merely point to "an osmosis in the club which has turned us from a small rowing boat into an ocean liner".
Can anyone beat Toulouse this season? The reply is typical of Novès. "Here, we try to cultivate humility in our players, respect for their adversaries. We take Llanelli very seriously. Everyone can beat us. When we are not ready, we can be beaten by anyone."
The message is in the proviso: fired by tradition, Toulouse will be ready today to unleash le jeu.
"Le Jeu"
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Read it first on the Munsterfans website although it's an article from the Guardian.
http://www.munsterfans.com/forum/forum_ ... 11047&PN=1
http://www.munsterfans.com/forum/forum_ ... 11047&PN=1
Stand up for PICU R.V.H.
I'm sure the French are playing great rugby.. but the skill of the French club game has, very suddenly, become one of those media truisms that we can't get away from. I do wonder what all the journalists praising the French game are basing their opinions on - I can't imagine they're all sitting at home, paying £14 a month for Setanta's coverage. Until recently, you couldn't see French club rugby in this country at all..
