WRW WEDNESDAY: PARIS TWENTY YEARS ON

May 19, 2021

I doubt that even now, twenty years on, that there will ever be a day with so much joy in it for Leicester Tigers. The tale will be often told from a Leicester perspective.

But what of Stade Francais, still never to win a European Cup? How the fates have turned since May 19th 2001..

A recent article in Midi-Olympique told the story of the opportunity lost for rugby in Paris and where it went wrong for the men in garish pink.

As many who were there will tell you, the Final was set up perfectly for them. Returning to a major European rugby occasion to the Parc des Princes for the first time in three years, there was not a spare seat to be had and a lot more flags in blue and red.

Under its owner Max Guazzini, Stade had been launched from Pro D2 obscurity to become genuine kings of the French game. This was to be their coronation. and they were in form.

"This title was reaching out to us. That year, until that game, the team was walking on water. We had 14 consecutive victories in the league," said Sylvain Marconnet, the unstoppable loosehead.

"Europe was the goal of the season," said second row David Auradou. We only had this appointment in mind.”
"A final at the Parc des Princes, for us playing next door in little Jean-Bouin, was huge. I still remember the warm-up when I was practicing kicking. To see all these supporters for us, I felt that we could not lose," Diego Dominguez said from Argentina on his birthday this year.

But what happened in midweek prior to the game, might have changed the result. Australian John Connolly, later of Bath, had taken over as head coach twelve months earlier, with assistant Paul Healy.

They inherited a system where the players self-managed the team’s approach, with halfbacks Dominguez and Christophe Laussucq running the video analysis at the start of the week. Christophe Juillet, the number 8 and captain, was also consulted heavily.

Dominguez: "He changed the shape of our training. We trained like crazy, but he almost never changed the starting XV. It was a good way, but it took us a while to adapt, especially for our bodies to get used to these doses of training. This change of pace in the bodies was terrible. It would have had to be more progressive to digest more easily."

But on Stade marched, relentlessly to the Final, beating Munster in the semi.

A crucial change

The week of the final was spent in seclusion in Evry before they spent the Friday night in their usual pre-Final hotel, the Chateau de Maffliers.

On Monday, Connolly knocks on the door of Laussucq after dinner to tell him the team for the final will be the same as the semi final. That means Morgan Williams wears the 9 shirt ahead of Laussucq, with just three starts in the season behind him. Connolly even asks him to congratulate the Canadian at breakfast the following day.

To use the French vernacular, Laussucq is seriously *pissed off*. Cue an epic and costly strop.

All night long, Laussucq ruminates: "I didn't sleep. I didn't understand. I had played a week before, 40 minutes against Pau in the league to test my knee. I had been at the club for six years. Along with Peter De Villiers, we were there the longest. John had begged me to play the semi-final. I had his confidence, he broke everything," he says, 20 years later, struggling to contain his tears.

In the hotel lobby, Laussucq meets the club's manager, Alain Elias. He tells him that he is going home "to Lacanau (in the Gironde) by the first plane." He leaves his partner Patrice Collazo at Orly Airport and goes to lock himself in his Paris apartment. "I didn't want to see anyone."

For twenty-four hours, Laussucq shuts down his phone. In the ranks, there is panic, especially among the big players. "The announcement of his non-tenure and his departure had destabilized the group." Kiki" was the dad of the forward pack, especially since Bernard Laporte was no longer our coach. I think that with Christophe on the pitch, we would have been European champions. I have no regrets about the 2005 final against Toulouse, but yes," says Sylvain Marconnet.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the players meet and try to make John Connolly influence his decision, while trying to reach Laussucq without success.
David Auradou recalls: "It wasn't John's best choice during his two seasons in Paris. As a player, I found it incomprehensible but as a coach today I can understand it. Christophe's departure had been detrimental to our preparation, but his reaction was normal. He was the big guy's boss. We tried to change John's mind, to no avail.”

Guazzini by-passes Connolly

In steps Max Guazzini who calls Laussucq.

"On Thursday, he wants to send Elias to pick me up by car in Gironde. Then I tell him the truth. That I'm in Saint-Cloud. He's offering to fire John if I come back. I refuse, of course. And at his insistence, I promise to come back. So I join the group at the hotel the day before the game.”

In any case, twenty years later, Connolly remains sure of his decision. "Christopher was coming back from injury and Morgan had a very good game against Munster. In these cases, you follow the same course of action and you take back the winning team. For me, Williams had found his mark with Dominguez. Christophe certainly had an exceptional pass but Morgan was a constant threat, ball in hand. They had two different styles. I have a lot of respect for both players, who were also hard workers. The game against Munster was the key to my choice. Especially since Laussucq was injured.

The scrum-half has a different view. "We haven't spoken since Monday night. If I run into him, I don't even know if I'm shaking his hand," laussucq said, resentfully.

Laussucq was there on the touchline thoughout the second half of the final. He never got his chance.

"On the field even at the very end of the game, he would have changed everything," says Sylvain Marconnet. Stade lost the Final before playing it, on a decision that, twenty years later, remains for Christophe Laussucq a real injury. Still not healed. Not for him, not for some partners of yesteryear. "I think about this defeat all the time. When I see a European Cup match, I tell myself that we're missing that,... (sic) Dominguez says.

Both Connolly and Laussucq didn’t hang around in Paris. The final was the scrum half’s final game for the club and Connolly only lasted another six months before Nick Mallett replaced him.

They all still hurt now after that hot Parisian afternoon twenty years on.

Looking forward to hearing about it this week…share your stories of Paris via the comments button and I wonder how you look back on the day now

A GOOD WEEK’S WORK

Results could not have gone much better this week and while margins are tight - four clubs below Tigers in the table are all within a bonus point win - I’m starting to look up the table.

For all the talk of them as playoff contenders, since they won at Welford Road, Northampton have slipped seriously off the pace. Two very poor performances to Gloucester and Newcastle have all but killed off the top four as a serious proposition but look at the fixtures to come.

Leicester can beat Worcester certainly and I wonder in front of fans, whether they have the game plan now to knock off Bristol who might be starting to think of the playoffs by then. Wasps could go either way. It doesn’t really matter in the end as either 5th or 6th will qualify for Europe and represent a very satisfying “rebuilding” season whatever happens at Twickenham.

So should we be asking the question?

Can Tigers overtake Saints?

SELECTION AND THE LIKE

There are some fascinating selection calls to be made by Steve Borthwick for Friday’s European Challenge Cup Final, but in broad terms, most of the team picks itself. We broadly know how Leicester will shape up and may not consider Montpellier’s line of attack as closely as some might think.

The selection dilemmas are four in number:

BENCH

Given the muscular way Top 14 teams approach their game and Montpellier are no different, the physicality you expect is a given from the off so the first selection question should be whether the bench is 5-4 or 6-2.

Choosing either will obviously affect the balance of the 23 and having some extra heavies coming on for the last 30 is a big help.

I notice that Borthwick has only gone for a 6-2 bench sparingly this season - at home to Exeter and Sale in the Premiership and then earning the victory in France at Bayonne in January.

To have all three of Lavanini, Martin and either Brink or Reffell entering the second-half fray would be a big help. I’m tempted to go for it but I wonder if Borthwick will.

RIGHT WING: Van Wyk, Porter, Potter or Murimurivalu

For all of these calls, we have to assume no injuries.

If you go with no backline replacements, the obvious call is to go with Murimurivalu who has been sharp in the last couple of games. It would be unfair on Porter though whose try sealed the semi-final win over Ulster, but the Fijian wins the vote for me.

CENTRE: Kelly, Scott or Moroni

This may not be as straightforward as we think. Borthwick told us Moroni’s non-selection against Harlequins was down to “selection” not injury but for both the quarter-final and semi-final, the experienced international duo of Scott and Moroni turned out.

To me, Kelly has to play in the final if only to back the younger man in a tight selection call while for all of Moroni’s defensive prowess, I thought Scott’s performance in both attack and in defence gives him the 13 shirt.

BACK ROW: Liebenberg, Wiese and AN Other

This is the trickiest area to concentrate. While Montpellier like to pick a lock at 6 too - Janse van Rensburg most notable - Leicester play with speed too and it can be their point of difference.

Montpellier’s top try-scorer is ex-Northampton scrum-half Cobus Reinach and a quick openside needs to be over him like the proverbial rash. Brink coming on in the second half makes sense but Reffell’s performance against Quins especially in helping to set the tone in the early stages, give him the vote over Brink and Martin.

We shall see.

——-

On the other side, Gregory Fichten’s disciplinary hearing is set for later today. He received a red card for this incident in Saturday’s defeat at Stade Francais.

Grant Constable @GrantConstable

Nicolas Sanchez floored with prop Gregory Fichten's forearm (?), red card 🟥

As hazy as that footage is to make out, it looks unlikely that Fichten will play. But you never know.

With Montpellier on this ridiculous run of fixtures, it might be trickier to pick out who will play in the blue and white stripes. I wonder if it will be more like the team who played at Bath in the semi-final, which was:

Bouthier, Tisseron, Goosen, Vincent, Rattez, Lozowski, Paillaugue, Forletta, Guirado, Haouas, Verhaeghe, Willemse, Janse Van Rensburg, Camara, Becognee

HOW TO FUND A LEICESTER WOMEN’S TEAM

I’m really looking forward to this weekend, which sees the Final as part 1 of a double-header. Part 2 comes at the new StoneX Stadium where Saracens host Loughborough Lightning in the first of two Premier 15s semi finals.

We’re breaking new ground too with BBC Radio Leicester putting on commentary as well as BT Sport showing the game via its app.

Last week, WRW looked at the prospects for a Leicester Tigers team one day gracing the Premier 15s. Well, like so much put back because of the pandemic, things appear to be on the move.

First things first, there is no way Leicester are going to follow the eight other Premiership clubs with Premier 15s teams any time soon. I’m told the upfront costs are simply too great, which you can understand, with one leading coach estimating to me anywhere between £500,000 and £1 million to fund a Premier 15s team per season

New revenue streams could open, particularly in the longer term and we may be reaching the point soon where it becomes a PR drag NOT to have a leading women’s team. But let’s be fair - £13 million in loans has only just been agreed to keep the wolves from the door.

However, let’s see what happens next season. I am told “watch this space”.

There will be no bid for a Premier 15s franchise, not even part of Loughborough’s bid. But a plan to start a Leicester Tigers’ women’s team at grassroots level is still very much on track, if currently involved. You could easily see double-headers taking place at Welford Road and I would personally love to see a double-header involving Lightning/Saracens & Tigers/Saracens next season.

The pressure though to sustain a professional women’s team there, will not go away though. The question is how you fund it.

Funding

Now, the RFU does put its hands in its pockets and has been a pathfinder for the sport. It was the first to fund a fully professional national squad two years ago, with a 35 player squad put on modest salaries of nearly £30,000 a year.

But how much central funding does the RFU put into each Premier 15s club per season?

£60,000.

Yes, just £60,000

That’s £60,000 to help cover £500,000 costs.

Like everybody else, the RFU’s finances are stretched, in spite of whatever ex-RFU Chief Executive Francis Baron might say in the Rugby Paper - and Baron has been saying it WAY before the pandemic. It’s less of a cracked record, Baron has completely worn out the needle.

Perhaps this also explains why there are reports of players having to fund part of their insurance costs themselves. But it doesn’t justify it.

It also points to wider questions. What is the purpose of the RFU and where should its revenue earned by England be spent? To run England teams? To fund grassroots rugby or to support the Premiership?

With demands to fund the Championship and now the Premier 15s, should the Premiership expect as generous a deal from the RFU next time around?

Whatever its future, the Premier 15s is way better than anything else in the world and let’s not begrudge this work in progress for the search of the perfect.

It’s quite clear who have the stronger squads with the four semi-finalists, Gloucester-Hartpury and new entrants Exeter, some way clear of the rest. Currently, it is only a mixture of professional England players, semi-pros with jobs and amateurs but making it pay to go completely professional in the next few years has to be the goal.

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QUICK HITS

Nice read with Matt Scott from a Scottish perspective.

With Chris Harris heading to South Africa with the Lions, Scott stands a shot of playing at Welford Road for Scotland A and their full internationals this summer: