Tough guy

COMPARISONS with greatness are second nature to Stade Toulousain. After all, they have been winning since their formation as a club in 1907 with great teams forged from each generation.

It is why, 16 French championship titles later, players and coaches from across Europe hold them in such awe.

Munster scrum-half Peter Stringer calls them the Real Madrid of European rugby but behind every great team there is a great coach; the special person with the ability to inspire, motivate and galvanise elite sportsmen. At Toulouse his name is Guy Novès, and in his 10 years in charge he has delivered the Bouclier de Brennus Brennus's Shield the Holy Grail of French rugby six times, the French Cup twice and the Heineken Cup in its inaugural year, 1996.

Toulouse-born 49 years ago, he is a former winger capped seven times by France between 1977 and 1979 and if football analogies are the order of the day then, quite simply, he is rugby's Alex Ferguson.

Irish forward Trevor Brennan, who has relished his first season at Toulouse since joining them last summer, was quickly converted to the Novès way.

"He is like Ferguson," Brennan said, "and if he's unhappy he tells you what to do. But whatever he says goes at the end of the day, and come match day he's the boss."

Brennan is not the only one to pick up on the likeness in approach. Henry Bru, rugby correspondent with French sports newspaper L'Equipe, has followed Novès' career for many years.

"He's quite a disciplinarian," said Bru. "He's quite a tense guy and he wants to win everything he can. What is amazing is that after 10 years he's still in the job and doing so well. He's still taking part in training, picking the team, the main coach; he's still the boss and he still has the hunger and the drive to succeed."

There is also a sense of place, of belonging to his hometown and paying something back to it. The devastating explosion at a chemical factory in the city last year made thousands of people homeless and had an effect on its people akin to the September 11 acts of terrorism on New Yorkers. The event has given Novès fresh impetus to succeed with Stade Toulousain.

"After the catastrophe of the chemical explosion, we wanted to give something back to the people of Toulouse and being able to give them a home quarter-final and to share that with 35 000 Toulousains was one of our aims. And to have a semi-final in Toulouse against a team like Munster is an extra present. And if we don't go any further than this, I hope they will still be there."

As Novès' playing career reached its twilight years in the early 1980s, his club's found a new lease of life, laying the foundations of a reputation in the modern game that few have come close to bettering.

In 1980, when Novès was 27, Toulouse lost to Béziers in the French Championship final and despite missing out on the Bouclier, that defeat marked the point at which the club got serious about winning. Under the guidance of Robert Bru, they adopted a wholesale strategy for taking Stade Toulousain forward, a root and branch scheme for structure and method, development and organisation that turned Toulouse into a world-beating, record-holding club, delighting crowds with their hedonistic flair, creativity and ball-handling genius epitomised by players like Charvet, Bonneval and Phillippe Rougé-Thomas.

The momentum faltered a little at the start of the 1990s, however and as L'Equipe's Bru explained: "When Novès took charge of Stade Toulousain in 1993 he had been coaching at the club for four years in the background but the team were not in so good a condition.

"There was a very good generation of players that was coming through the junior ranks, though, and Novès stamped his character on them and they went on to dominate for the next four years."

While Novès did not quite do away with the rugby hedonism of days gone by he did tighten the Toulouse defence and developed a counter-attacking style. Sounds boring but Novès did not sacrifice the flair, merely augmented it. Jerome Cazalbou, a mainstay of the Novès' 1996 team says: "There is no real project of play with him, especially in finals, where the culture of getting the result replaces the ethos of beautiful play.

"However, one would be wrong to think that devalues the way they play. It just adapts to the contingencies of professional rugby. Above all, Novès knows how to embrace the warrior, send him into combat and make him play rugby."

L'EQUIPE'S Bru argues that the swashbuckling days of the 80s was merely a veneer, that the velvet glove covered a steely core in the same way it does with Novès' sides.

"First and foremost, Stade Toulousain have had a big scrum for the last 20 years; even when they were famous for their running rugby. That has always been the basis for their game, a big scrum and big forwards. The running rugby thing took hold because they had the likes of Charvet and all those but all the time it was the scrum doing the big work.

"In fact they are playing more open rugby these days than they used to do."

Like Ferguson, Novès has been around long enough to have seen one great side flourish and then dismantle it before rebuilding another.

The last two years have seen his latest team develop with European competition ending at the group stage. But now Toulouse are back in business.

Only winger Emile Ntamack, the captain in 96, is still there while players like Cazalbou, Stephane Ougier and Cristian Califano are all retired or at the end of the road.

In their place are a new mix of players cherry-picked from across Europe at great expense and a home-grown group of youngsters like scrum-half Frederic Michalak and centre Clement Pointrenaud, products of the Toulouse academy.

"It has taken a long time to rebuild the squad," Noves says, "but I am experiencing the same good vibes now with this team as with the team we had six or seven years ago.

"There is a real sense of friendship within the team, the atmosphere is great and I am reliving a part of that.

"There is a common desire to try to achieve something big and already to have reached the semis is a great achievement. However, Munster have lost two finals so I'm sure their desire to get there again is enormous too.

"Munster have improved over the past three years, of course although I don't know the team well enough to assess the difference a new coach has made.

"They are a complete team with a complete game. They are dangerous all over the pitch, and their game is difficult to read. They are capable of holding onto the ball for long periods of time and their half-back pairing is an area to watch out for they use their strengths very well.

"Strategically and technically we will have to be on top of our game on Saturday if we play like we did during the first 20 minutes of the second half on Saturday against Pau, we will lose by 30 points."

Win or lose, Novès will stick with it, urging his new side on to gretaer heights into an 11th season. It's the only thing he knows.

Asked why he has stuck it out at Toulouse for so long and whether he would consider other offers, he is unequivocal in his response.

"I was born in Toulouse, I am at the club since 1975. This is almost a life."

And a dream one moreover, be it the climate, the environment or, of course, the rugby. To answer the question, I believe I would think over a proposal but I do not see myself accepting it."

Bru believes him. "Novès may have had offers to go elsewhere but in my opinion he would only leave for the French team. He's like Alex Ferguson. When you're at Manchester United and Blackburn come to you and offer you more money you're not going to be a bit interested. He doesn't have to go anywhere."