A work in progress
The Montauban joint coach had just emerged from a room peopled with a section of the marquee players and coaches of French rugby, but while his club will carry the tag of bridesmaids into the tournament, they’re not content to just make up the numbers. Cliched but true.
When a roving mic was handed to Labit and then to Montauban’s captain, Marc Travers, during the launch, both spoke enthusiastically of taking their place at the top table of European rugby. In a pool of sharks, Montauban are the veritable minnows but they intend to enjoy their Heineken Cup moments against Munster, Clermont Auvergne and Sale.
“As this is our first Heineken Cup, for us it’s much more about the opportunity to play in the tournament, to be playing in a pool with Munster who are the team of reference in European rugby. It is fantastic for us,” says Labit. “We’re not going in with any particular objectives in terms of results or in terms of progression through the tournament. What’s important to us is to continue the progression our team has made over the last three years. We’re very honoured to be here.”
Earlier Labit had bumped into a former teammate, Fabien Galthié. Both Galthié, a French legend, and he formed a steady half-back partnership for Colomiers, helping lead them to the 1999 Heineken Cup final in Lansdowne Road. Then they wouldn’t have been one of France’s glamour clubs, but that Labit pitched up at Montauban makes it appear he likes the attraction of smaller, hungrier clubs.
Working alongside ex-Brive hooker Laurent Travers, the pair masterminded a route for Montauban into the Top 14 in 2006 and then into the Heineken Cup at the end of last season by virtue of a seventh place finish.
Now that they are in the big time, they don’t want to disappoint their little town. They couldn’t have asked for a tougher opening assignment — Munster in Thomond Park — but Labit says it’s a dream start to their campaign at the spiritual home of Irish, and even European rugby
“Apart from any other honour, to be the first foreign team to play the first Heineken Cup game in the new stadium is something we couldn’t have dreamed of. It’s a fabulous, fabulous ground. Our players fully appreciate they’re going to play a massive team in a massive stadium with a world famous atmosphere. I just hope that we’re able to give the supporters a sufficiently good performance so that nobody goes away disappointed.”
As a player, Labit experienced the highs and lows of Heineken Cup rugby. He played opposite Ulster’s David Humphreys at Lansdowne Road in the 1999 final, but on a day when Ulster transformed the shaky old Dublin 4 ground into a kaleidoscope of colour, Colomiers had to give second best to the Irish province in a 21-6 defeat.
He did knock over a penalty but it was Ulster’s day and he has no complaints with the result. Six penalties from the boot of Simon Mason and a drop goal from Humphreys handed Ulster victory and Ireland its first Heineken Cup winners. But on the road to that final, Labit faced Munster in the quarter-final at Stade Selery. In a physical battle, Colomiers prevailed 23-9 winners over a Mick Galwey-led Munster.
He enjoys coaching alongside Travers; they form a formidable double act. In French rugby the idea of joint coaches is de rigeur. Think Guy Noves/Phillipe Rouge Thomas at Toulouse or Vern Cotter/Jean-Marc Lhermet at ASM Clermont Auvergne and Labit is in good company at Montauban, working alongside former Brive forward Laurent Travers, the latter a winner of Heineken Cup medal in 1997.
In getting to this point the club has punched well above its weight. Montauban is very small and based in a town that has a population of 55,600. However, it is the chief town in the Tarm-et Garonne region in southern France, about 30 miles by road north of Toulouse, the big brother of French rugby. It’s not unusual to have their best players pinched by the bigger cash-rich clubs of the French south in Toulouse, Perpignan or Montpellier but Labit says they try to create a close-knit playing environment and, not unlike Munster, go out and play with a cause. Interestingly, it was a club Trevor Brennan had intended joining before being slapped with a five-year ban from the game in 2006.
Labit says they like to play with the amateur spirit in the professional era.
Understandably, their expectations in the Heineken Cup aren’t high. Retaining mid-table respectability in the Top 14 is their main priority and, judging by their results in five seasons in the Challenge Cup (W12 L10, reaching the quarter finals just once), this pool could be a chastening experience for Travers and Labit.
“We’ve only seven or eight players who’ve ever played Heineken Cup rugby,” says Labit. “The big thing for us is to try to get the guys as much experience as possible, something that we’ll be able to take on into the future when we won’t be the new boys and won’t be the ones who have never played in the tournament before.”
Their stadium, Stade De Sapiac, holds just 9,200 and will be home to Munster in their final pool game next January. Given the strength of Clermont and Sale, Munster may be looking for a win in round six. The ticket rush should prove interesting. The town, says Labit, cannot wait for the arrival of big-name teams such as Munster and Sale, while after a couple of seasons in the Top 14 the novelty of meeting Clermont Auvergne appears to wearing off.
“We only came up to the Top 14 three years ago,” says Labit. “Because of the proximity of teams like Toulouse who are very big and commercial, we’re very much a family club. We’ve got a small stadium that seats about 10,000. It’s very much part of the town. We like to think we still play with the amateur spirit but in the professional era.”
Labit says the town will be bursting with local pride when their more vaunted opponents in the pool arrive.
“We’re extremely honoured as a club as a team and the town feels exactly the same, very excited and very impatient to see these games take place in their own town. Obviously as a coach I’m a little bit more reticent about it because my big concern is that finishing a game against Munster or Sale exhausted and injured is our big fear. So maybe I’m not as excited as the locals are. I think they’re really looking forward to it.”
French teams are notoriously poor travellers, and while Munster are expected to beat them on Friday, Tony McGahan’s men will be wary of the underdog biting in this pool.
“It’s not an advantage to be an underdog in terms of playing,” says Labit. “What is great is that we’ll have the opportunity to learn that our players are going to get to rub shoulders with the likes of Munster. They’ve got some real quality players and we’re going to go into these games trying to learn as much as we can. If we win, fantastic. There’s no great expectation on our part. We’re very well aware of how tough the competition is. We only came up to the Top 14 three years ago after winning the Pro D2 tournament and to be honest being in the Heineken Cup so quickly wasn’t really part of the plan. We’re not under-prepared but it’s come a lot sooner than we’d hoped than we were expecting it to.
“This was never the plan to be here so quickly — obviously it was an aim to be here further on down the line.”
Labit’s on-field general, French international back row forward Marc Raynaud, is no stranger to the Heineken Cup: three of his 50 European matches came for ASM Clermont Auvergne in the 2002/03 tournament. His 47 European Challenge Cup matches have been for Narbonne (30), ASM Clermont Auvergne (11) and six for Montauban.
“Whether we are playing against Clermont, Munster or Sale in that particular round, we know what to expect and that is that we will face major challenges. For us the main focus is on our national championship but we will fight also in the European tournament,” Raynaud said.
“We have watched the Heineken Cup games before so, although it’s a first for us, we know what level is expected and what we are up against with such great teams in our group. I see the key as being one to produce the best possible performances and so offer good, competitive games to satisfy the spectators and our supporters.
“As regards the round one-fixture against Munster, I must admit that the fact that we are going to play in their brand new stadium at Thomond Park means we could not have hoped or asked for a better start.
“If we get a full house and 26,000 spectators that will be awesome and that alone will inspire and lift those boys who have never experienced such an occasion as only a few amongst us know what that is like.”
