Toulouse and Toulon have outings to forget ahead of Irish assignments

With most of their Six Nations contingent watching from the stands, Toulouse and Toulon had weekends to forget ahead of their Champions Cup matches against Munster and Leinster respectively

Toulouse lock Emmanuel Meafou is tackled by Montpellier counterpart Bastien Chalureau during the French Top 14 clash. Picture: Getty Images

French Top 14 rugby returned at the weekend to give clubs still involved in Europe a much-needed run-out after a two-week international break.

With most of their Six Nations contingent watching from the stands, Toulouse and Toulon had weekends to forget as they both returned to action ahead of their Champions Cup round-of-16 matches against Munster and Leinster respectively.

Leaders Toulouse burned up the wildcard they had carefully created for themselves — their second home defeat of the season and just their fifth loss in all competitions — and allowed nearest rivals La Rochelle to cut the gap they had built at the top of the table to just three points with six Top 14 games to play.

Toulon, meanwhile, shipped seven tries and 54 points against Lyon to slip out of the end-of-season play-off places, a result that has crystalised their priorities for the rest of the season.

The working theory in the Toulouse camp is that Saturday’s below-par performance in defeat to 11th-placed Montpellier — they were second best in most areas of the game — was in large part because the league leaders had one eye on this week’s European match against Munster at Thomond Park.

Extra breakdown drills are certain to be worked into this week’s training schedule after the visitors exposed a number of flaws in Toulouse’s ground work.

Immediately after the match, captain Yoann Huget graciously thanked Montpellier on camera for helpfully pointing out those problems.

To make matters worse, they have lost centre Sofiane Guitoune with a knee injury that could keep him out for the rest of the season — leaving match-fit midfield stocks at the club worryingly sparse at the business end of the season.

But it’s not all pre-Europe doom and gloom. Last season’s losing semi-finalists have their internationals back now that France’s coronavirus-extended Six Nations campaign has finally ended.

After nine weeks without the services of the likes of Antoine Dupont and Cyril Baille, you can be sure that Ugo Mola — a coach on a long-stated mission to make Toulouse great in Europe again — will make use of the players at his disposal.

It will be tough on those just back from France camp, as they are likely to be pitched straight into Champions Cup knockout mode following weeks of international rugby intensity — but they will be up for the challenge.

While Toulouse are looking to keep their season running on two fronts, the same cannot be said of Toulon — even if opposition coach Leo Cullen warned his Leinster charges off over-celebrating after their PRO14 final win.

Like Toulouse, Toulon will have their French internationals back after several weeks without their services. Louis Carbonel was even a late addition to the starting line-up against Lyon after dashing back from Paris to offer his services to a club short of fit specialist fly-halves.

But the likely absence of Ma’a Nonu following his rush of blood to the elbow, which then found its way into Jean-Marc Doussain’s face, half-an-hour into Saturday’s 54-16 defeat has surely done the plans of head coach Patrice Collazo precisely no favours.

There are just six games left in the Top 14’s regular season for Toulon to fight their way back into the play-off zone. They include tough trips to Clermont and Castres, and home matches against Bordeaux and Toulouse.

It’s not unreasonable, then, to believe that Collazo won’t be entirely devastated to lose in Dublin on Friday.

Toulon would win an extra week’s break and the chance to refocus on the play-off chase. It is an option that he might regard as a lose-win.