Toulon boss Mignoni: 'Leinster need to be respected'

Toulon Director of Rugby Pierre Mignoni. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho

Toulon boss Pierre Mignoni is insisting that talk of Leinster’s decline is greatly exaggerated.

The former France scrum-half brings a squad to Dublin for Saturday’s Champions Cup semi-final that is rated as double-digit underdogs by the bookies, but there are widespread doubts about the Irish province on the back of a mixed season.

Six defeats in the URC have fed into that. So has their scratchy progress in the Champions Cup with up and down performances getting the job done but convincing no-one of their bona fides as the tournament comes to the crunch.

“We have a lot of respect for them as a team and a club,” said Mignoni whose impressive playing career took in three spells with Toulon as well as one with Clermont Auvergne and others besides.

“I have known them for a long time. It has been my bad luck to play against them, they are one of the biggest teams in the world, so it is a great opportunity to see where we are at and I think it will be a great semi-final.”

That take was echoed by his skipper Charles Ollivon whose opinion of a Leinster side dominated by Ireland internationals does not appear to have been lowered by a convincing Six Nations win for France in early February.

As for Mignoni, he was never going to delve into the intricacies of what makes Leinster tick in a tactical or a technical sense, but he was asked to go into some more detail on his reasons for bigging up the Irish side.

“Because they show it every season. They are in the Champions Cup and the final phases every year. For us we haven’t been in 11 years. Their story is to be here every year.

“They need to be respected for that. I have a lot of respect for the club and for Leo Cullen. He is the one who puts it all together. He represents Leinster for many years, first as a player and now as the director of rugby.”