Winner of the Challenge Cup but again absent from the final phase of the Top 14, Toulon intends to “learn the lessons of the mistakes made last year”, assured Tuesday the president of the Var club Bernard Lemaître.
“The primary objective is obviously to play in the final phase of the Top 14. We clearly have the ambition to return to the fore over the next three years. The 2023-2024 season is the first of this new plan”, promised Lemaître, ensuring on several occasions that he wanted to “learn from the mistakes made last year”, starting with the number of players from the training sectors (JIFF ), which had forced the RCT to tweak at the end of the championship.
The RCT had finished the season in 7th place with 61 points, two lengths from Bordeaux-Bègles, roadblocker.
The Var club has not played in the final phase of the Top 14 since the 2017-2018 season.
For this reason, the Rouge et Noir have turned to players who have passed through French training centers, such as opener Enzo Hervé (Brive) or third lines Selevasio Tolofua (Toulouse) and Esteban Abadie (Brive), accompanied by a few stars like New Zealand three-quarter Leicester Fainga’anuku, Scottish scrum-half Ben White or Welsh legend Alun Wyn Jones and Australian fly-half Noah Lolesio, engaged as World Cup jokers.
“We will play the Champions Cup thoroughly, just like the Top 14. There will be no difference between the two competitions, we will play both to win them,” promised manager Pierre Mignoni.
“We went for a very important Challenge Cup title, both for the club and for the group. It gives us impetus because a big club wins titles, ”he continued.
The Varois, winners of the “small” European Cup against Glasgow (43-19) last season, returned to training on July 10 to prepare for a new special season in parallel with the World Cup organized in France (September 8-October 28), with three days and then a seven-week break during the competition.
Toulon will start their Top 14 season on the lawn of Lyon on Saturday August 19, before continuing with the reception of Bayonne and a trip to Bordeaux-Bègles.
