Sickest 9-13 combo in recent years?

9. Michelak
10. Wilkinson
12. Giteau
13. Mermoz

That's better than anything anyone has put out in recent years (including NZ and British Lions).

Wouldn't surprise me if Toulon have a clone of Gareth Edwards on the bench.

sick

Could become sicker if the rumors about Carter turned out to be true..!

Carter=better
Nonu or SBW=better
C Smith=better.

Still very good though.

That is an exceptional club backline no doubting. I've got to agree with kingjohn that 10.Carter 12.Nonu/SBW 13.Smith with any of Piri, Cowan or Aaron Smith at 9 is probably better though.

Carter is the best 10 I've seen play the game, and give Nonu/Smith a few years after their retirement to be remembered and they'll be thought of as one of the great partnerships IMO.

9. Aaron Smith
10. Dan Carter
12. Sonny Bill Williams
13. Conrad Smith

Nobody can beat that, and they even have the second best 12 and 10 on the bench - Nonu and Cruden

Hate Toulon. Spending millions trying to buy glory. Year after year more stars are brought in. But no team spirit or pride from the mercenaries. And no trophy's thankfully.

Would love Leinster to meet them so we can wipe the floor with them with our home grown boys. Gimme Sexton, D'arcy, O'Driscoll any day.

Think I spoke to soon.

Montpellier battering them.

Maybe, not sure it's much better than

Parra
James
Fofana
Rougerie/King

Or

Genia
Cooper
O'Connor
Ashley Cooper

And I'm quite happy with our 9-13 combo too

Feckless Rogue wrote:Hate Toulon. Spending millions trying to buy glory. Year after year more stars are brought in. But no team spirit or pride from the mercenaries. And no trophy's thankfully.

Would love Leinster to meet them so we can wipe the floor with them with our home grown boys. Gimme Sexton, D'arcy, O'Driscoll any day.

I agree with Feckless. For me, in some ways it's nice to see Toulon not getting anywhere. Sure, they're getting some wins, but they lack that team spirit that helps to grind out the wins because there is so much disruption with new players being parachuted in all of the time. Must be both great as a coach and bad: great as you get to coach the top players, but bad because you can't get the combinations going and build momentum over a few seasons.

The more they don't win stuff the bigger the message that Galactico teams are not the way forward, and hopefully some parity across the board in terms of spend will be encouraged. We'll always have richer and poorer clubs, but Toulon are taking the biscuit!

Toulon certainly seem to spend more on their stars than most, but they're hardly alone in terms of top European teams that bring in a fair amount of foreign stars. I remember last weekend someone posted that Ulster, Clermont & Toulon all had the same number of foreign born players in their starting 15, but it was only Toulon that was getting criticised.

Despite the new signings it's interesting that not many players are leaving and quite a few have been there a while now. The majority seem to be very happy there beyond the monetary aspects, in particular citing lifestyle and how the club looks after them, with a number being given a new lease of life in their careers. When I've seen them play team spirit has always seemed pretty high and most have given their all.

Not sure about the comments that they're not getting anywhere either, they've been improving in the Top 14 and HC each year for the last few. Leading the Top 14 and securing a home quarter in the HC this year.

Michalak and Wilkinson were absolute garbage today - really really bad, particularly Wilkinson.

monwy wrote:Toulon certainly seem to spend more on their stars than most, but they're hardly alone in terms of top European teams that bring in a fair amount of foreign stars. I remember last weekend someone posted that Ulster, Clermont & Toulon all had the same number of foreign born players in their starting 15, but it was only Toulon that was getting criticised.

Despite the new signings it's interesting that not many players are leaving and quite a few have been there a while now. The majority seem to be very happy there beyond the monetary aspects, in particular citing lifestyle and how the club looks after them, with a number being given a new lease of life in their careers. When I've seen them play team spirit has always seemed pretty high and most have given their all.

Not sure about the comments that they're not getting anywhere either, they've been improving in the Top 14 and HC each year for the last few. Leading the Top 14 and securing a home quarter in the HC this year.

I don't see how Ulster could have anywhere near the same amount. Most of their starting 15 is Irish.

[quote="LeinsterFan4life"]

monwy wrote:I remember last weekend someone posted that Ulster, Clermont & Toulon all had the same number of foreign born players in their starting 15

Someone's been talking absolute garbage then.

I just had a look, last weekend 7 foreign born starting for Clermont and Toulon, 6 for Ulster.

monwy wrote:I just had a look, last weekend 7 foreign born starting for Clermont and Toulon, 6 for Ulster.

Thats why Ireland and France had such a poor six nations and will fail again this year.

Great for their clubs, not for the nations.

EnglandRose wrote:

monwy wrote:I just had a look, last weekend 7 foreign born starting for Clermont and Toulon, 6 for Ulster.

Thats why Ireland and France had such a poor six nations and will fail again this year.

Great for their clubs, not for the nations.

Leinster won the HC with two foreign players in the starting 15...oh but I suppose you think we "Bought the HC".

monwy wrote:I just had a look, last weekend 7 foreign born starting for Clermont and Toulon, 6 for Ulster.

I count 4 for Ulster?
Edit: Oh and their bench is all irish qualified too. What game are you looking at?

I imagine he's including Irish qualified players who were born abroad - in which case you could accuse most English teams of the same especially the likes of Tigers. Today Ulster had 2 NIQ's in the team, comparing us to Toulon is laughable.

EnglandRose wrote:

monwy wrote:I just had a look, last weekend 7 foreign born starting for Clermont and Toulon, 6 for Ulster.

Thats why Ireland and France had such a poor six nations and will fail again this year.

Great for their clubs, not for the nations.

That is like saying England are crap since Saracens (one team) are filled with South African born players.

Plus that is some prediction, to think that France will fail this year. Ireland still have Kidney in charge though.

Surely the AB 9-13 combo in the recent test against England were the sickest combo since the AB 9-13 combo in the '95 world cup final

Just checked Tigers team for tomorrow - They have 6 foreign born players in the starting 15, must mean England are going to fail in the 6N.

Saracens have 8 foreign born players in their starting 15 for tomorrow as well.

You do know that EnglandRose is Welsh?

It's a cunning disguise admittedly

Cyril on 606v2 wrote:You do know that EnglandRose is Welsh?

It's a cunning disguise admittedly

Oh so he is trying to make the english look bad?

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

Cyril on 606v2 wrote:You do know that EnglandRose is Welsh?

It's a cunning disguise admittedly

Oh so he is trying to make the english look bad?

Looks like it. We can normally do a good enough job ourselves

HongKongCherry wrote:Surely the AB 9-13 combo in the recent test against England were the sickest combo since the AB 9-13 combo in the '95 world cup final

Funny that, because all of his posts are written in a very similar style to you Cyril. A bit of split personality tom foolery?

Griff wrote:Funny that, because all of his posts are written in a very similar style to you Cyril. A bit of split personality tom foolery?

I thought he was you, Griff. It's definitlely more your line of posting.

Ahh, the quip of a discovered wrongdoer!

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

monwy wrote:I just had a look, last weekend 7 foreign born starting for Clermont and Toulon, 6 for Ulster.

I count 4 for Ulster?
Edit: Oh and their bench is all irish qualified too. What game are you looking at?

My post says last weekend, so that was Ulster v Glasgow; Jared Payne, Ruan Pienaar, Nick Williams, Robbie Diack, John Afoa, Tom Court.

Personally I'm not having a go at any of those teams, I just think that what Toulon is doing isn't wildly different from what most other top clubs are, but they seem to get the brunt of the vilifying. Indeed last weekend one of Clermont's French born players, Bardy, plays for Portugal, so they actually had less French qualified players than Toulon, yet no one is knocking Clermont for their lack of French players and most have said they'd consider them deserved winners. It all comes across as a little snooty to me.

monwy wrote:

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

monwy wrote:I just had a look, last weekend 7 foreign born starting for Clermont and Toulon, 6 for Ulster.

I count 4 for Ulster?
Edit: Oh and their bench is all irish qualified too. What game are you looking at?

My post says last weekend, so that was Ulster v Glasgow; Jared Payne, Ruan Pienaar, Nick Williams, Robbie Diack, John Afoa, Tom Court.

Personally I'm not having a go at any of those teams, I just think that what Toulon is doing isn't wildly different from what most other top clubs are, but they seem to get the brunt of the vilifying. Indeed last weekend one of Clermont's French born players, Bardy, plays for Portugal, so they actually had less French qualified players than Toulon, yet no one is knocking Clermont for their lack of French players and most have said they'd consider them deserved winners. It all comes across as a little snooty to me.

Tom Court and Robbie Diack are both Irish qualified. Court has even represented Ireland on numerous occasions.

I think we have another awop on the site

I didn't say anything other than foreign born. If Court has played for Ireland, then fair enough, though to be fair to me my quick check on him showed that he was born in Australia and represented sides down there till he was 26. Didn't see the bit about an Irish grandparent

Is Diack actually likely to represent Ireland? Just being eligible through residency means that players in the Clermont & Toulon tally could also probably be discounted.


Like I said, I'm not having a go at any of the teams, I just don't think people are being evenhanded in their criticism.

I've nothing against the player but I'd be pretty uncomfortable with people calling Robbie Irish even if he had been capped. He hasn't though, shouldn't and hopefully never will (there really isn't a need). Claiming him as Irish before he's capped is an insult to the hard work of our many real Irish young backrow talents.

gelodge wrote:I've nothing against the player but I'd be pretty uncomfortable with people calling Robbie Irish even if he had been capped. He hasn't though, shouldn't and hopefully never will (there really isn't a need). Claiming him as Irish before he's capped is an insult to the hard work of our many real Irish young backrow talents.

nobody said he was irish, I said he was Irish qualified. If he was offered a call up from the irish national team, im nearly sure he would take it.

Not suggesting he'll make the 9-13 any sicker, but just heard that Toulon have signed Castrogiovanni