Peter Jackson: Saracens are praying for Paris
Dusautoir has been getting back up now for 10 seasons but never in such ghastly circumstances for his country and for humanity.
Amid terrifying uncertainty, it would have been understandable had Toulouse asked for a postponement of their engagement in north London on humanitarian grounds.
Saracens, their hosts, marked the occasion with a heartfelt display of Anglo-French solidarity, their fans bearing flags proclaiming: ‘We Stand With Paris’ and ‘Pray for Paris.’
They joined in Le Marseillaise and the bewildered looks on the Toulouse players’ faces suggested that, for all their unquestioned professionalism, something was bound to be missing.
Having insisted that the show go on, Saracens stole it so completely that they had the match won by half-time. Dusautoir, his team hopelessly adrift, had been knocked down morally and then physically on the same day.
There had been some hefty blows in years long gone, none heftier than those inflicted by Munster in successive European Cup finals in Cardiff. The young Dusautoir lost there by a whisker with Biarritz in 2006 and by even less of a whisker with Toulouse in 2008.
A shining symbol of France as a multi-cultural society whose family moved from West Africa to Perigueux when he was ten, he kept following the Lombardi philosophy throughout a torrid World Cup.
In rapid succession, he found it necessary to deny a dressing-room revolt against coach Philippe Saint-Andre after Ireland had sent them down an All Black alley in Cardiff. And then six days later in the wake of an even more revolting performance, Dusautoir tried manfully to defend the indefensible — a nine-try rout by the holders.
How trivial all that appears set in the context of the Parisian nightmare. And how typical of Dusautoir to take it on the chin with an immediate denial that nothing other than Sarries’ supremacy had contributed to their beating.
“Our country is in a very bad moment but today Saracens were better than us,” he said. “The result has nothing to do with what’s happening at home.”
It must have had an affect, however subconscious, not that Toulouse’s biggest defeat (32-7) for almost a decade is liable to be subjected to psychoanalysis, too lengthy a process to be of any use with the team in action this weekend.
Once the mightiest club in Europe, Toulouse headed home having been reduced to clutching a straw.
They had denied Saracens a fourth try and with it a fifth point which, on a scale of sporting achievement, was akin to Louis van Gaal saying Manchester United will avoid relegation.
At a time like this, sport can be almost too trivial for words…
Never in all their years running the gamut from making up the numbers in Europe to the biggest hitters of all have Leinster suffered as bad a beating at home as yesterday’s hammering.
Ironically, they can heap the blame squarely on the shoulders of a middle-aged businessman from Cork.
Derek Richardson made a fortune from online insurance, having reached London via Dublin and Monaco. He then transformed Wasps from imminent bankruptcy by relocating them from one end of an industrial estate in High Wycombe to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
His detractors told him it would never work, that what few fans the club had left would think twice about traipsing to the West Midlands. It turned out be the commercial move of the season 11 months ago, Wasps increasing their attendance five fold for their first match — from fewer than 6,000 to almost 30,000.
Richardson’s visionary ownership was not the only Irish factor militating against Leinster yesterday. The man-of-the-match, Charles Piutau, is on loan to Wasps from Ulster for the season — a fact made all the more astounding given that the player has signed to spend two years in Belfast on a reported £500,000-a-year.
IRFU restrictions on non-Irish qualified players meant that Ulster had to put Piutau on hold until next season by which time three other foreign players at the province will have ended their contracts — the South Africans Franco van der Merwe and Louis Ludik plus the battering-ram, Nick Williams.
Should Ulster get to the last eight, sod’s law decrees that they are bound to run smack into their very own All Black except he will be wearing an insect on his jersey instead of the Red Hand.
Clubs restore some pride for English game
The English may have contrived to lock themselves out of their own global party at the World Cup but their leading clubs have flown out of the traps in the annual attempt to conquer Europe.
Saracens, Wasps and Leicester produced the best rugby of a truncated opening round which, at first glance, would appear to ridicule the RFU’s assumption that none of their Premiership coaches are up to taking charge of England, hence their emphasis on “international experience”.
Ironically, two of the three aforementioned clubs are run by non-Englishmen.
Mark McCall, the former Ireland centre from Bangor, Co. Down, is director of rugby at Saracens who now holds a special double – 27-point wins over Toulouse with two clubs.
He first did it as Ulster coach at Ravenhill nine years ago.
Wasps are run by the Welsh Lion Dai Young. No praise is too high for the salvage operation he carried out in keeping Wasps afloat in the Premiership when they didn’t have two pennies to rub together.
Old dogs for the long road
Old out-halves never quit, they just keep going.
Seremaia Bai is the daddy of them all, still good enough at 36 to come off the bench and kick a late penalty for Leicester Tigers’ in their home win over Stade Francais.
He will turn 37 early in the New Year and nobody’s going to be saying Bai Bai for a while yet. The next oldest, the 85-Test French veteran Damien Traillie, will be 37 and had been chosen as Pau’s starting 10 for their postponed Challenge Cup tie against Castres.
Two other 10s may have retired from the Test arena but they are still match- winners – the All Black Nick Evans, in prodigious form for Harlequins, and Charlie Hodgson for Saracens. Brock James, Clermont’s Australian fly-half, is only 34 and, therefore, still wet behind the ears.
George North put his foot in it at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday night for the costliest yellow card of the round. Northampton fans were being treated to a big screen re-run of a sweeping Luther Burrell try when Romain Poite saw North stamping on an opponent in the build-up.
The French referee disallowed the try, binned North and his old club, the Scarlets, kicked themselves all the way home to west Wales for the four missed penalties that cost them the match.
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