Toulon: No pressure on us
Toulon’s director of rugby has marshalled his expensively assembled side to the top of Pool Three with three wins from four and they can end the interest of the group’s top seeds with a victory over the Irish province at what will be a raucous Stade Felix-Mayol.
“Naturally we’re positive about the Munster match, at Mayol,” Saint-Andre told the Irish Examiner after his team were beaten 15-12 at Racing Metro on Sunday night in a tight, no-try French Top 14 league encounter.
“Munster are a fantastic team with a good record in this competition and this is our first time, so it will not be easy. But we don’t have any pressure on because we’re not favourites in this group and this competition is just a bonus for us and we’ll just try to do our best.”
Disingenuous, maybe, and particularly given that the former French captain is hopeful of recalling former All Blacks tighthead prop Carl Hayman to his team after a neck injury, while club captain and former Springbok Joe Van Niekerk made a successful return as a second-half substitute after a bout of gastroenteritis.
Felipe Contepomi, who started the 45-18 Thomond Park round two defeat last October at fly-half before making way for a more dynamic Jonny Wilkinson, may also come into the reckoning, although Saint-Andre was more optimistic than certain about that likelihood.
“Hayman wasn’t playing but I think he will be okay for next week, everyone will be,” the Toulon boss said. “Felipe, I think so, I hope so.”
Saint-Andre claimed ignorance about Munster’s current form, saying he was concentrating on Toulon’s Top 14 clash with Racing.
“To be honest, the Top 14 is so important a competition I haven’t focused on Munster yet. Now I’ll start to focus on them, their injuries and so on. At the moment it’s difficult for me to focus on anything but the Racing game.”
It may be one he wants to forget. Saint-Andre cut a bitterly disappointed figure at Stade Yves du Manoir in Paris after Toulon slipped to sixth place in the Top 14 table, while Racing moved up a place to second and closed the gap on leaders Toulouse to two points.
Three drop goals and a penalty from Wilkinson had moved Toulon into a 12-3 half-time lead, only for the Racing pack to get on top of the visitors and the Parisian backs to start emulating the English fly-half. Racing No.10 Jonathan Wisniewski kicked two drop goals and a penalty and South African full-back Francois Steyn kicked another drop goal as the home side claimed the points in tough physical encounter that left Saint-Andre extremely frustrated with referee Cedric Marchat.
“We tried to play positive rugby but we were penalised 15 times against five,” Saint-Andre said. “Sometimes I don’t understand, you want consistency, and today, nothing’s happened. But we showed huge commitment, it was a very hard game and I’m proud of my players.
“Now we have to recover, be fresh and try to be spot on for Sunday because it’s a huge game against Munster.”
Munster can expect a much-changed Toulon team from the one they faced in October and, indeed, Racing faced on Sunday night. Aside from Hayman’s return, Saint-Andre is likely to make several changes to the side that went down narrowly in the war of attrition at Racing.
Dean Schofield and Jocelino Suta are tipped to form the second row with Schofield’s English compatriot Kris Chesney and Dewald Senekal making way. With Van Niekerk returning to No. 8, Argentina’s Juan Fernandez Lobbe will revert to the blindside and Australia’s George Smith will move to openside.
In the backs, Wilkinson is expected to start at fly-half with Pierre Mignoni, sprung off the bench on Sunday, returning to the scrum-half berth. And there may also be changes to the Toulon back three with Rudi Wolf moving from full-back to his preferred wing position, Rory Lamont going in the other direction and Paul Sackey expected to shake off the illness that kept him out of the Racing game and take the other wing jersey from Christian Loamanu.
TOULON (possible v Munster): R Lamont; P Sackey, M Kefu, G Lovobalavu, R Wulf; J Wilkinson, P Mignoni; L Emmanuelli, S Bruno, C Hayman; D Schofield, J Suta; J Fernandez Lobbe, G Smith, J van Niekerk.
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