RC Toulon

RC Toulon
Rugby Club Toulonnais, also referred to as Rugby Club Toulon or simply Toulon, is a French professional rugby union club based in Toulon and competing in the Top 14. Located on the French Riviera, in the Provence region, the club plays its home games at the 17,500-capacity Stade Mayol.
Founded in 1908, Toulon is one of the most important and widely supported rugby clubs in France. Domestically, the club has won a total of four league titles, two Pro D2 titles and two Challenge Yves du Manoir. In international competitions, Toulon is the only one to have won the Heineken Cup/European Rugby Champions Cup three times in a row, and succeeded in winning the league/European cup double in 2014 too. Toulon has also won the EPCR Challenge Cup in 2023 after reaching the final on four occasions. The club established itself as a major force in domestic and European rugby in the 2010s when Jonny Wilkinson, Mathieu Bastareaud, Bakkies Botha, Matt Giteau and other rugby stars played at Mayol under Bernard Laporte's management.
A club renowned for its fans fervour and its stadium atmosphere, Toulon has rivalries with Toulouse and Clermont and has traditionally worn a red and black home kit since its inception. The club's crest features a sprig of lily of the valley, symbol of the club's benefactor and Belle Époque singer Félix Mayol who used to wear one on his jacket. A few times per season, important matches against majors teams are played at the 67,394-capacity Stade Vélodrome located in Marseille away.
History
Rugby Club Toulonnais was founded on 3 June 1908 as a merger of Étoile Sportive Varoise and members of the Stade Varois, a club based in nearby La Seyne-sur-Mer. It took the club 23 years to reach the top of French rugby, when they won the 1931 championship against Lyon Olympique Universitaire (6–3, 2 tries to 1). The players were greeted by 30,000 people when they returned from Bordeaux, where the final had been held.
Toulon remained one of the top French clubs, but they lost four finals scattered over 35 years (1948, 1968, 1971 and 1985). The 1985 extra-time defeat by Stade Toulousain left them with many regrets, and playing a spectacular final (36–22) did nothing to alleviate the pain of losing. The Red and Black waited only two more years to finally lay their hands on the Bouclier de Brennus, as they defeated Racing at the Parc des Princes. The third title came in 1992, against Biarritz Olympique, in Serge Blanco's last match and last chance to win the title.
For eight years, Toulon were not particularly successful and were in heavy financial trouble (a 10 million franc deficit) forced the Ligue Nationale de Rugby to demote them to the Second Division in July 2000. The club missed an immediate return the next year, going down in the final to Montauban, as only one club was promoted that year. It took them five more years to do so as Toulon went on to win the Pro D2 title. But despite immense popular support (gates averaged more than 12,000), and much enthusiasm, they managed to win only three games out of 26 and were relegated after only a season.
Toulon signs star players
A new president, Mourad Boudjellal, a Toulonnais who made his fortune in the comic strip business, promised to build a huge team. He said: "I invented the Top 15, with a team that could be competitive in the Top 14". He signed a high number of first-class players, some of them well above 30, like Jean-Jacques Crenca, Yann Delaigue, Gonzalo Quesada and Dan Luger. He created buzz around the team as he managed to sign former All Blacks captain Tana Umaga, who arrived in Toulon right after the end of the Air New Zealand Cup on 26 October 2006. The contract was rumoured to be around €300,000 (£200,000), which Boudjellal claimed to pay from his own pocket, for only eight to ten matches. In a 2010 interview, Boudjellal would say about his decision to pursue Umaga, "It was incredible, because we were in the second division and I was speaking with the best player in the world. But he said yes and came to play with Toulon."
Boudjellal continued to sign high-profile veteran players, including captain and former all-time international caps leader George Gregan, reportedly paid €400,000 out of Boudjellal's pocket, All Blacks' former all-time scoring leader Andrew Mehrtens, and Jonny Wilkinson.
Back in Pro D2 for the 2006–07 season, Toulon finish fourth in the league, putting them in the promotion playoffs for a place in the Top 14, but they lost in the promotion semi-finals 21–17 at La Rochelle. The following season Toulon headed the table from early on, never dropping from the top spot on their way to clinching promotion with two rounds to spare. The 2008–09 season proved to be one of consolidation. Umaga had been handed the coaching reins, but as Boudjellal would later say, "The first season in the Top 14 was very difficult and I learned that Tana Umaga was not yet ready to give up playing – and that he's not a manager." The team managed to survive that season, using a late-season surge to avoid a relegation scare. Toulon had a much more successful 2009–10 campaign, with Wilkinson leading the charge. He would be named the top fly-half of the year in France by leading rugby publication Midi Olympique, and would also be recalled to the England national team. Domestically, Toulon finished second on the league table, losing out to Perpignan for the top spot on a tiebreaker. This finish gave them a spot in the 2010–11 Heineken Cup, and also a first-round bye in that season's Top 14 playoffs. Toulon's domestic campaign ended in the semi-finals with a 35–29 extra-time loss to eventual champion Clermont in Saint-Étienne.
Toulon's 2009–10 Challenge Cup campaign proved more successful. They finished top of their pool and advanced to the knockout stage, crushing Scarlets 38–12 in the quarterfinals and surviving a hard-fought match against Connacht 19–12. Toulon got their preferred final venue of the Vélodrome on 23 May, where they lost to the Cardiff Blues 28–21, missing out on silverware for the season.
In May 2013 Toulon won the 2013 Heineken Cup Final by 16–15 against Clermont Auvergne.
Emblem
On the day of his arrival in Paris, on 1 May 1895, just before his first concert, Félix Mayol was met by a female friend at the station, who gave him some lily-of-the-valley, a flower people traditionally exchange on 1 May in France. He pinned it on his lapel, his concert was a success and Mayol, who was superstitious, made the lily-of-the-valley his personal emblem. It was taken up by the rugby club in 1921.
Stadium
In 1920, its stadium was inaugurated. It is named after Félix Mayol, a very popular concert hall singer from Toulon who had succeeded in Paris in the early 20th century. Shortly after World War I, he purchased what would be the stadium site and donated it to the club. It is one of the few French stadiums to be almost completely surrounded by the city and overlooks the Toulon bay and military harbour in the Mediterranean.
Charity cross-code matches
The club has played in cross-code charity matches with a half each of rugby union and football. On July 18, 2013, they played Olympique de Marseille in the first ever match of the kind at the Stade Mayol to benefit a local charity with Marc Lièvremont and Eric Cantona as the referees in either half, with Olympique de Marseille winning 36–35.
Two years later, the club played another such match to benefit a local children's charity at the Stade Mayol against France 98, the charity association team composed of France's 1998 FIFA World Cup winners, and won 33–26. Bernard Laporte served as one of the referees.
Honours
Heineken Cup/European Rugby Champions Cup
Champions (3): 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15
European Challenge Cup
Champions (1): 2022–23
Runners-up (4): 2009–10, 2011–12, 2019–20, 2021–22
Top 14
Champions (4): 1930–31, 1986–87, 1991–92, 2013–14
Runners-up (9): 1947–48, 1967–68, 1970–71, 1984–85, 1988–89, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2015–16, 2016–17
Challenge Yves du Manoir
Champions (2): 1934, 1970
Runners-up (3): 1939, 1954, 1983
Rugby Pro D2
Champions (2): 2004–05, 2007–08
Runners-up (1): 2000–01
Finals results
Heineken Cup and European Rugby Champions Cup
French championship
Challenge Yves du Manoir
European Challenge Cup
Current standings
Current squad
The Toulon squad for the 2022–23 season is:
Espoirs squad
The RC Toulonnais Espoirs squad is:
Notable former players
This is a list of former players in alphabetical order showing nationality and the period played for the club.
French
Marc Andreu (2002–2009)
Mathieu Bastareaud (2011–2019)
Benjamin Bastères (2001–2011, 2022–2023)
Jean Berti
Christian Califano (1990–1991)
Christian Carrère
Éric Champ (1979–1996)
Jean-Jacques Crenca (2006–2007)
Yann Delaigue (1988–1997, 2006–2007)
Christophe Dominici (1993–1997)
Jérôme Gallion (1975–1989)
André Herrero
Aubin Hueber (1991–2000, 2003–2006)
Jean-Teiva Jacquelain “Academy” (2015–2017)
Benjamin Lapeyre (2010–2013)
Jo Maso (1962–1964)
Éric Melville
Jacques Merquey
Pierre Mignoni (1996–2000, 2009–2011)
Olivier Missoup (2008–2012)
Marc de Rougemont (1991–1998)
Jean-Baptiste Rué (2006–2007)
Thomas Sourice (2000–2012)
Jean-François Tordo
International
Felipe Contepomi
Matias Cortese
Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe
Juan Martín Hernández
Facundo Isa
Esteban Lozada
Gonzalo Quesada
Nicolás Sánchez
Leonardo Senatore
Fotu Auelua
Quade Cooper
Rocky Elsom
Matt Giteau
George Gregan
Matt Henjak
Salesi Ma'afu
Drew Mitchell
James O'Connor
Luke Rooney
George Smith
Jone Tawake
Lachlan Turner
Martin Jágr
Delon Armitage
Steffon Armitage
Chris Ashton
Kris Chesney
Joe El-Abd
Nick Kennedy
Dan Luger
Tom May
Paul Sackey
Dean Schofield
Simon Shaw
Matt Stevens
Andrew Sheridan
Jonny Wilkinson
Sireli Bobo
Sisa Koyamaibole
Gabiriele Lovobalavu
Semi Radradra
Manasa Saulo
Josua Tuisova
Levan Chilachava
Mamuka Gorgodze
Davit Kubriashvili
Konstantin Mikautadze
Ilia Zedginidze
Gia Labadze
Akvsenti Giorgadze
Damien Tussac
Rob Henderson
Paul O'Connell
Martin Castrogiovanni
Santiago Dellapè
Ramiro Pez
Ayumu Goromaru
Christian Loamanu
Jerry Collins
Malakai Fekitoa
Carl Hayman
Chris Masoe
Alby Mathewson
Andrew Mehrtens
Liam Messam
Ma'a Nonu
Anton Oliver
Julian Savea
Saimone Taumoepeau
Tana Umaga
Ali Williams
Sonny Bill Williams
Rudi Wulf
Bakkies Botha
Michael Claassens
Eben Etzebeth
Bryan Habana
Juandré Kruger
Victor Matfield
JP Pietersen
André Pretorius
Danie Rossouw
Lawrence Sephaka
Juan Smith
Marcel van der Merwe
Joe van Niekerk
Duane Vermeulen
Lorne Ward
Radu Demian
Alin Petrache
Alafoti Fa'osiliva
Tusi Pisi
Junior Polu
David Smith
Philip Fitzgerald
Rory Lamont
Makalea Foliaki(Academy)
Jean-Teiva Jacquelain(Academy)
Mafileo Kefu
Samu Manoa
Leigh Halfpenny
Gavin Henson
Gethin Jenkins
Jamie Robinson
See also
List of rugby union clubs in France
Rugby union in France
References
External links
RC Toulonnais Official website
Toulon
Toulon
Toulon
Sport in Toulon
1908 establishments in France