EMMANUEL MEAFOU HAS come up against Leinster twice in his career, and twice he’s left the pitch with regrets.
Last season he was a try-scorer in a 41-22 Champions Cup semi-final defeat at Aviva Stadium while 12 months earlier he was yellow-carded in a 40-17 last four loss at the same venue. On both occasions, Toulouse boarded their flight back to France feeling they hadn’t given a proper account of themselves.
Setting that record straight is proving a powerful source of motivation ahead of their latest meeting, with the two European heavyweights set to face off in Saturday’s Champions Cup final in London.
“I’m not sure, there was a bunch of stuff [that went wrong in those semi-finals],” says Meafou.
“Reviewing our games now, we’ve definitely sat down and said ‘we haven’t had a good game against Leinster’. Leinster’s a quality team and we just weren’t ready for those games.
“A mixture of things; inexperience, ill-discipline. Last year we played with two yellow cards, and it’s hard to win a final when you’re down a player. We’ve grown as a team and in this team, there’s a lot of players who have played those past two games. We’re definitely not the same players and same team.”
Some Leinster players have spoken about winning this competition again as being “an obsession” and while there will be plenty of pressure on the province ahead of their third straight Champions Cup final, Toulouse will also carry the weight of their glorious history into the London final.
The French side have won the Champions Cup more than any other club, with four-time winners Leinster hoping to pull level with that record this weekend.
The last of Toulouse’s five titles came in 2021, and having reclaimed the Top 14 last season there is a real hunger to conquer Europe again. Winning is also an obsession in Toulouse, and Meafou admits it didn’t take long for that mindset to sink in when he moved from Australia to join the Toulouse Academy in 2019.
Definitely, I think when you come here, everyone wants to win, but here it’s definitely an expectation. They’re historically successful and want to keep it that way.
“When there’s a loss or bad game – even if we do win – it’s expected to win and win convincing. That’s always the bar, and we set it high. We don’t aim for anything lower than a win, and a good win. We know what we’re capable of and they guys aim high.
“As for this weekend, even though our success rate against Leinster hasn’t been good, we’re a different team than we were three years ago and four years ago, and we keep getting better. We like our chances, and we’re going to give it our best.”
Meafou was born in New Zealand but moved to Australia when he was two. A promising athlete, he played rugby league growing up and was approached by NFL scouts before moving across the world to join Toulouse.
The 6’8″, 145kg lock got his first proper run in the Toulouse team in the double-winning 2020/21 season and has been a first-choice pick in the second row across the last three seasons, mixing his powerful ball-carrying with a touch of the famous Toulouse flair.
“I was raised in Australia, so living and growing up there, when you think of French rugby you just think ‘pick and go, scrums, nitty gritty stuff’. But when I came here, I found out it’s nothing like that.
“Of course they like to enjoy that part of the game, but here the DNA of the game and Toulouse in general, they want to play, and they want to keep the ball alive.
“And it’s really encouraged from a young age, from the boys in the U12s all the way up to the pros.
“They are encouraged to play that brand of rugby, and when it sticks it sticks, and that’s something that we train on, and it’s been working well for us. It’s not only this team this year, it’s definitely a historic brand of this club, and they’re very successful. So if it’s working, why change it?”
Much of that is down to the influence of Ugo Mola, the former Toulouse player who has held the reins since 2015, putting a big focus on the culture and identity of the club.
“Since he’s taken the job the success of the club has gone only up and I think it’s linked massively also to the players we have and the players we did have in the past.
“It’s a culture that’s built from the top to the bottom, even above Ugo, from our president Didier Lacroix, so I think it’s a club thing, it’s not on one person. It’s from our president, from our sponsors, to our coaches down to the players. Everyone has bought into what we want to do and it’s definitely like a brotherhood feel over here and we want to take that into any game we play and come out victorious.
“He wants to encourage our brand of play even more. He hasn’t changed at all. Ugo can be out there but he is very encouraging and he wants the best out of his players.”
Now Leinster stand as the next hurdle on their hunt for a potential double. Toulouse are in confident mood heading into the final and also lead the Top 14 by three points.
“Not much has changed this week. It’s not another game, we obviously know it’s a big game for us but as for our game, we know if we play our best I think we can get the job done.”
