Boudjellal on building Toulon

[Holiver]

Pretty nice interview, in which he explains how he started from the bottom with Toulon to getting to where he's at right now.

 

[Big Ewis]

I've got to say the man is quite special. He's got something. The way he talks, some of his phrases, the notions he mentions........but I'm one of those who thinks he's a moneybag in deed. I just don't see how there's any debating against that concept.
The one thing I give him is that money and big players don't necessarily get you success - we've seen 'super teams' fail even with big names - but that alone doesn't help justify he's got big international names throughout his roster, I mean, Castrogiovanni alone is regarded as one of the best tightheads in the world and he doesn't see a whole lot of playing time. That's just ridiculous. Bastareaud, Michalak, same thing.

Alexis Palisson, a guy who starts for a Rugby World Cup Final squad, can't see the field at all and bam the next year they bring in..........Bryan motherfuccking Habana. It's like a joke, a sketch. It's pure comedy. David Smith, Palisson, Habana, Drew Mitchell, Rudi Wulf.....that's just the wing position.
How do you justify all that, RCT fan ?!!! HUH ?!!!!

 

[Holiver]

The one thing that I've always liked seeing with Toulon is all those players from all parts of the world playing together despite having been opponents in the past. I've always been in favor of cosmopolitanism, and kinda against communitarianism, so the fact that the team's not entirely "French" doesn't bother me, cause at the end of the day, it's just a bunch of human beings practicing a sport, you know what I mean ? BUT yeah, when you see a guy like Alexis Palisson (whom I've met several times) on the bench, you just feel bad for him, the man was playing for France like 2 freakin years ago! It's almost the same thing with Virgile Bruni or Pierrick Gunter, they are both from Toulon's Academy, and they really deserve much more than what we give them, if they didn't play for Toulon, you'd have already seen them in the national squad, which is a shame. So being a Toulon supporter can be hard at times yeah, but well it is what it is. Whenever I go to Stade Mayol, I see so many flags waving (the French one, the English one, the South African one and so on), that's something you really can't describe, and I think that this is what Boudjellal wanted, gather people around you know. So yeah, from one's perspective, things can be seen differently, and I get that, it is part of the game but man how beautiful that is when you see some of the best players in the world (no matter where they're from) play with some "youngsters" and see them learn from each other.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Pretty nice interview, in which he explains how he started from the bottom with Toulon to getting to where he's at right now.

So it's 3m53 of him holding a piece of paper with a € sign on it?

 

[Big Ewis]

So it's 3m53 of him holding a piece of paper with a € sign on it?

ohhhhhhhhhhhh....ohhh I get it !!





Yeah Holiver, I get what you mean and I like your spirit and approach towards 'togetherness', as cheesy as it may sound out of context. I do specifically, and this is never talked about in deed, like the universality of Toulon. I do like that Wilko and the Armittages or Simon Shaw (before) and Sheridan feel so involved in playing in France. I feel like if I were to speak to them now, they'd be Francized. I don't mean this with antipathy at all, like French is superior - I mean they're now changed a bit and there's been a fusion of the two worlds - they remain English and with all the qualities that brings but are also a little French or at least in a French environment which makes them involved. It's just pleasant.
I remember for example watching the YouTube vid of Andrew Sheridan explaining his experience with wine tasting, he took (still takes ?) classes.




I like the idea of French and English working together specifically, and things like Wilkinson or others saying they're much too focused on the Top 14 Championship to even think about the Lions or other international events is just humbling and pleasing, makes us closer.
If there were two peoples in Europe that would really complete each other, strangely enough, it's those two. I mean someone needs to educate these barbaric Saxons, goddamn it......
aaaaaaand - and they sure could teach us a thing or two about organization.