THE FRENCH TOP 14 returns to our screens this weekend but with the added twist of it being shown on Sky this year. While it is not everyone’s idea of perfect rugby (unless you love 6-3 slugfests) there is still a lot of talent on offer and it does serve up a brand of extremely physical rugby.
To mark its return to our screens we sat down over a couple of pain au chocolats and a few glasses of chardonnay and came up with five burning questions we have coming into the season that border on being searing questions.
1. Is it time for Guy Novés to go?
It isn’t much of a stretch to call Novés the Alex Ferguson of rugby, both in terms of longevity and silverware. 21 seasons, 10 Top 14 titles and four Heineken Cups is the greatest haul of any club coach ever but the last two years have been a struggle for the once great side.
Look through the squad and you don’t see any real reason for such a drop off. They might not have bought as fervently as Clermont and Toulon but when you still have players like Louis Picamoles, Vincent Clerc, Maxime Medard (just look at him in this video) and Thierry Dusautoir then there is no excuse for being eviscerated in Thomond Park like they were last April.
Novés seems to have moved into the Arsene Wenger phase of his tenure; still a great coach who can get his team into the knockout phases but they just don’t seem to have the same killer instinct as old.
An ideal scenario would have been for the French Union to have sacked Saint-Andre last year and replaced him with Novés, allowing Jean- Baptiste Elissalde or William Servat to take over the reigns at Toulouse. If their is no silverware again this year, it could be the last for the magnificent Novés.
2. Can Clermont choke under a new coach too?
Last year couldn’t have gone worse for Clermont. It was already known that coach Verne Cotter was on his way out at the season’s end regardless and there was already an unpleasant odor in the dressing room after Cotter basically called his main men bottlers after the loss to Toulon in the Heineken Cup final.
But to finish the season getting annihilated by Saracens and then losing their home unbeaten streak to Castres was bad, even in the pantheon of Clermont collapses. Here’s a reminder of why Cotter questioned Brock James and Morgan Parra’s testicular fortitude.
So now backs coach Frank Azéma is taking over with former Leinster forwards coach Jono Gibbes taking the pack. You can’t get around the fact that despite being the best team in Europe over the last five years, they only have one Top 14 trophy to show for it (and they didn’t win anything after Joe Schmidt left).
They have lost one of their most unstoppable runners in Sitiveni Sivivatu and while they have made good signings with Jonathan Davies and Zac Guildford, they still lack a quality ten. Perhaps a clean break from the Cotter era would have been best, but with such quality available, Azéma should still get them to the business end, both at home and abroad.
And then we can see if anything has really changed at Clermont. My guess is it hasn’t.
3. Can Sky save the Top 14?
Maybe a little dramatic but this league is in SERIOUS need of a makeover. Having so much quality on the pitch just makes it even more infuriating when the game develops into a 9-6 snoozefest with 500 resets per scrum (sorry to sound like Stephen Jones there but it is true).
We need Sky to do what Sky does and not only put lipstick on this pig of a league but really give it the extreme makeover treatment. I know that there is a league full of exciting rugby in there somewhere, so hopefully Sky can find the Top 14′s outer beauty this season. They made darts look sexy and entertaining for god’s sake! Here’s hoping one day David Mitchell can do this skit while talking about Montpellier vs Perpignan.
4. Can Johnny Sexton kick on further?
For most of last year it looked like Sexton would seriously regret his decision. After a 6-0 loss away in a muckfest to Oyonnax back in January it looked like their season was over. But in fairness to Racing, their big guns rallied back and they finished the season on a serious upswing, upsetting Toulouse away on route to the semi final.
They have brought in promising French full back Brice Dulin and former Munster centre Casey Laulala as reinforcements and you have to wonder about how much better Sexton will be with a full year of French rugby under his belt. The difference between away days at Cardiff Blues and Bordeaux Begles is seismic and now that Sexton knows how to manage those games, Racing will be targeting a much better finish the last season’s fifth.
5. Will Castres surprise again?
Castres beating Toulon in the 2013 Top 14 final is one of the most underrated sporting upsets of the last few years. Coaches Laurent Travers and Laurent Labit engineered the smash and grab win against the galacticos but Les deux Laurents were promptly poached by Sexton’s Racing Metro.
Serge Milhas and David Darricarrere came in last year and somehow almost achieved the impossible again before ultimately succumbing to Toulon in the final. They have lost Dulin but they have signed Sivivatu from Clermont. Unfortunately the big winger is going to miss the first few months of the season with a shoulder injury but if Castres can remain in contention, don’t be surprised if they cause another upset.
For better or worse, they embody the Top 14- tough/borderline impossible to beat at home and staunch enough to come away from your stadium with a losing bonus point.
What are you looking forward to in the Top 14 this season? How far do you think Racing Metro will go?
