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Posted 271 days ago
THEY SAY Lourdes is where you go in search of a miracle cure, but if you’re a thirty-something Englishman Toulon seems to be the place in France that has healing properties. We know all about Jonny Wilkinson, rejuvenated since he left Newcastle for the Cote d’Azur in 2009, and Simon Shaw has had a second wind since he quit Wasps for Toulon 12 months ago.
Posted 277 days ago
THE TOP 14 may be a slow-burner right now with few games of real drama but one man doing his best to light the touch paper is Virimi Vakatawa. The 20-year-old winger was in scorching form a couple of weeks back for Racing against Toulon, scoring a superb solo try proving a real handful for the opposition defence.
Posted 293 days ago
By Gavin Mortimer, Rugby World writer
FOR A man who two years ago was reputedly the highest paid rugby player in the world, Sebastien Chabal embarked upon the latest stage of his career at the weekend with less fanfare than he’s been used to in the past few years. The 34-year-old No 8, once of Sale Sharks and Racing Metro, made…
Posted 300 days ago
DOWN IN Perpignan Luke Charteris isn’t hard to miss. At 6ft 9in and 20st, and with that fair Celtic skin of his, he stands out a mile in the Catalan city where people tend to be shorter, stockier and slightly more bronzed. Not that the Wales lock minds the attention. “I’m loving it down here,” he tells Rugby World.
Posted 306 days ago
By Gavin Mortimer, Rugby World writer
THE OLYMPICS are over and the football season is about to get underway. But don’t worry, it’s not all depressing news on the sports front. The 2012-13 rugby season is just round the corner in the British Isles while over in France the new Top 14 campaign kicks off this weekend.
You have to feel for…
Posted 349 days ago
FIRST THE good news. Five years from now rugby fans will no longer be required to trudge out to the Stade de France every time France play a home international. Now the bad news. From 2017 the home of Les Bleus will be a spanking new stadium in Evry. Where? Well, exactly. Evry is a nondescript commuter suburb 20 miles south of Paris,
Posted 355 days ago
FREDDIE’S BACK! Just a week after we were pondering the future of French flair, Frederic Michalak orchestrated a thumping 49-10 win for France in Tucuman of all places. Not many countries hammer the Pumas on their own patch, let alone Tucuman, a roughhouse of a town in the north-west of Argentina.
Posted 363 days ago
IN CASE you missed it what with all the misery surrounding the Home Nations narrow defeats at the weekend, France also suffered at the hands of the southern hemisphere. Their 23-20 loss to Argentina in Cordoba was Les Bleus eighth defeat in 11 matches against the Pumas, writes Gavin Mortimer.
France have the chance to level the two-Test series this Saturday…
Posted 395 days ago
A RATHER drab and uninspiring final with Biarritz able to ensure their Heineken Cup qualification thanks to the boot of Dimitri Yachvili in wet conditions at the Stoop. They were fortunate, however, that Toulon couldn’t get the ball to Jonny Wilkinson in the final minutes or he could have slotted another of
Posted 403 days ago
By Gavin Mortimer
IS THIS going to be the season when Toulon finally climb back to the summit of French rugby? The last time they were there was exactly twenty years ago when a side containing the likes of Aubin Hueber and Yann Delaigue defeated Biarritz 19-14 to win the Bouclier de Brennus. Many hard years followed that triumph until Mourad…
