Rugby World UK – August 2019

BROTHERS

ACK IN 2012, I had

the misfortune to be

present at the Top 14

final. It was a dire

spectacle, one of the

worst games of rugby

that I can remember.

Jonny Wilkinson’s

Toulon lost to

Toulouse 18-12 in a

match devoid of tries,

invention or ambition.

The victors owed their success to the

boot of All Black Luke McAlister but one

left the Stade de France wondering how

a Toulouse team of such scintillating

talent could produce 80 minutes of

mind-numbing tedium.

We didn’t know it at the time but that

Top 14 title – Toulouse’s third in five

seasons – would bring down the curtain

on their era of extraordinary success. As

well as the domestic domination (they

also won six titles between 1994 and

2001), the club from the deep south

of France were crowned European

champions on four occasions and

for two decades their players formed

the backbone of les Bleus.

Within five years of that

2012 triumph, Toulouse

finished the season one

place above the relegation

zone of the Top 14. Instead

of the Champions Cup, it

was the Challenge Cup and

instead of providing the

bulk of the squad for the

national side, Toulouse had

no players selected by

Jacques Brunel when he

named his starting XV to

face Ireland in the first round

of the 2018 Six Nations.

Eighteen months later, however, and

Toulouse have been transformed into

something resembling the club that

terrified opponents for the best part of

20 years. They finished 15 points clear

of second-placed Clermont in the

regular French season, won their first

Top 14 final since 2012 – lifting the

Bouclier de Brennus for an incredible

20th time – and reached their first

European Cup semi-final since 2011.

The 31-man World Cup squad Brunel

named in mid-June featured seven

players from Toulouse and another

amongst the six reserves – a tally

matched only by Clermont.

Six of the seven are backs, and

among them are a new generation in

Antoine Dupont, Thomas Ramos and

Romain Ntamack, aged 22, 23 and 20

respectively. Ntamack was a member of

the U20 squad that beat England last

summer to win their first world title in

that age group and he’s since won

senior caps, as has another of his U20

team-mates, Brive prop Demba Bamba.

When I met Dupont, Ramos and

Ntamack in Toulouse recently, I had

Could Toulouse’s new generation transform the fortunes of

France? Ahead of their World Cup clash with England, we

meet Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack and Thomas Ramos

Words Gavin Mortimer // Main Picture Patrick Derewiany

France

Title triumph

Toulouse celebrate

THOMAS RAMOS

Age23 (23 July 1995)

PositionFull-back

France capsFour