Being sixth in the Top 14 during the season is nothing short of dishonouring. Even when you are called Stade Toulousain and you are the reigning French and European champion. What is a task, however, with such a name and such a recent past, is to mark history with a very gloomy record of six defeats in a row in the league. A first in the history of the club which receives the UBB, Sunday February 27, after a new setback in Pau (27-22), last Saturday.
However, after an extraordinary start to the year 2021, punctuated by such a rare double, Toulouse had started its 2021-2022 season on the same standards. A series of six victories, and not the least on the lawns of La Rochelle or Montpellier in particular. And then boom. Before receiving the leader Bordeaux-Bègles, in the heart of the Six Nations Tournament, the troops of Ugo Mola, largely cut off from their international contingent, have been in need of victory since last November 27.
If the first defeats, conceded against direct competitors, were not of a nature to worry on the quays of the Garonne, the last against Perpignan, Stade Français and Pau are starting to raise questions.
“It’s not usual in Toulouse, commented Vincent Clerc who wore the colors of Toulouse for almost fifteen years. He explains : The Stadium played very little during the months of December and January, there were a lot of matches postponed, in the European Cup as in the Top 14, so there is an obvious lack of rhythm. And then we can’t hide it, we’ve been talking about it for twenty years, but today Stade Toulouse is deprived of a third of its workforce in important matches because of duplicates with the XV of France. There are six or seven games during which the staff have to deal without their best players.”
Game over!⚔️ pic.twitter.com/zmbiPOCC5t
— USAP (@usap_official) February 5, 2022
Duplicates”. A refrain that keeps coming back and that Ugo Mola continued to sing after the home defeat against Stade Français, Saturday February 12, in the columns of Rugbyrama : “I am torn between frustration and worry. Worried necessarily when we see the program which is ours with unfortunately our lot of injuries. But worried in a period when the championship, we all know it, is distorted concerning us.”
If Toulouse is the first provider of the XV of France, putting the blame entirely on the duplicates would not be entirely accurate. The beginning of the end originated when the Bleus de Galthié were taking a break. In addition to the absences of its senior players, the lack of rhythm due to the numerous postponements because of the Covid this winter can also explain this poor form. In addition, the club with 21 Brennus shields does not seem to have the same bench depth as in recent seasons. “The team may have less room to manoeuvre, asks Vincent Clerc. Players who are used to being substitutes have to take on six games instead of three as starters, and moreover these are not the best conditions.”
The club so quick to launch young players finds itself doing so constrained and forced, “not in the best conditions”, by Ugo Mola’s own admission before the defeat in Pau, at the microphone of Canal +.
If he had sketched a slight smile when talking about this, the manager from Haut-Garonne has not always distilled it lately. After the heavy defeat in Perpignan, Saturday February 5, he had charged his players.
“I’m bound to be angry but I don’t want to pull or hit something that was so brilliant not so long ago… We have to find the right tone to stop victimizing ourselves, to make the front pages of magazines and newspapers. Without offending anyone, a rugby player must remain a rugby player, a rugby coach must remain a rugby coach and the environment of the club must remain what it is. ‘is all dispersed, many are dispersing and we will have to close ranks because we have hit rock bottom,’ he had dropped, still with our colleagues from Rugbyrama.
“You have to look in a mirror…and stop talking about others”
Thomas Ramos is bitter after the Toulouse defeat and points the finger at the lack of work of the @StadeToulousain pic.twitter.com/OoXIoOMSal
– Canal Rugby Club (@CanalRugbyClub) February 19, 2022
Remarks substantially similar to those of Thomas Ramos, after the defeat in Pau this time. “Don’t let go, it’s nice to say it, but it has to be done. At times like this, I think you have to look in the mirror, stop talking about others (…) and get back to work because maybe we forgot that for a while.
“The team is in trouble, it exacerbates certain emotions and not everyone reacts in the same way, comments Vincent Clerc. I don’t think there’s a lack of solidarity in this team but it’s hard to live with so the players react differently, there must be small tensions even if Toulouse’s potential is there.”
During the 2014-2015 season, Toulouse’s potential was also there. Vincent Clerc too. However, the men of Guy Novès had started the season with a sad series of five defeats in a row. An anomaly, already. A moment the international winger remembers “very well” and that he and his teammates had gone through through dialogue, informal meetings.
The bad series ended with a victory against Stade Français, the future champion of France. Sunday, it is the current leader of the championship which will present itself in Toulouse, the Union Bordeaux-Bègles. The same Girondins against whom the Stade had started its bad series of six defeats.