“Pierre Mignoni will join the Toulon rugby club next season and for a period of four years (2022-2026) as director of rugby. Franck Azéma, sports manager of the club […] is extended by three years, so until 2026 as well, ”the Var club announced in a press release on Wednesday. “Franck Azéma and Pierre Mignoni will share all the responsibilities and challenges of the RCT’s sports policy”, he further specified, adding that “this association” of two sports managers was “a first in professional rugby”. .
“The opportunity arose with the departure of Mignoni” from the LOU, announced on February 3, explained Bernard Lemaître, president of the RCT, during a press conference. Present at his side, Franck Azéma clarified that Pierre Mignoni, former scrum half from Toulon, Béziers, Dax, Clermont and international (28 selections), and he would be “both on the ground” next season: “I am convinced that we can do a good job together, drawing on our skills. »
Back home
“I’m very excited, it’s innovative and stimulating. Together, I tell myself that we will be even more efficient, ”assured Azéma, who arrived on the Rade last fall from Clermont. As for Mignoni, before arriving at LOU in 2015, he had been Bernard Laporte’s assistant at the RCT: it is therefore a return to the fold for the native of Toulon.
Associating a duo at the head of a rugby team is not a first. Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers in particular have co-trained several clubs, including Castres Olympique and Racing 92, with a French championship title in 2016. Founded in 1908, the RCT has one of the richest track records in French rugby , with four French championship titles (1931, 1987, 1992, and 2014) and three European Cups (2013, 2014, 2015).
This record imposes a certain standing on the club. However, the RCT has now almost lost all its hopes of qualifying for the play-offs at the end of the season. The electroshock was the fall to last place in the Top 14, which occurred after the defeat of Toulon on February 5 against Castres (22-10) at home. At the end of the meeting, his international scrum-half Louis Carbonel, who will leave La Rade at the end of the season, evoked the fatal word of “maintenance” in the elite: “We no longer have the right to make mistakes and every game becomes important,” he said.
“Sick Rumors”
Even Bakkies Botha, the former South African second line, at the RCT from 2011 to 2015, went there with his diatribe on his Twitter account: “Some of the highest paid players in the world (play for the RCT) and (there) the result,” he wrote, claiming “responsibility and character.”
“Character”, the RCT had it the following Saturday by winning in pain over the leader of the Top 14, Bordeaux-Bègles (21-18) and giving up its red lantern place in Biarritz. “It was very complicated”, then dropped the scrum half and Toulon captain Baptiste Serin, at the microphone of Canal +. “What I remember is the state of mind. I think the band is waking up to the current state of things. »
However, the club did not leave the inn and its president had to sweep away several “false, fake news, ridiculous” rumors of the departure of its executives (Gabin Villière, Charles Ollivon, Jean-Baptiste Gros) on Wednesday, while confirming those of Eben Etzebeth and Carbonel. “These are unhealthy rumors when the club needs to unite all its energies,” he said, before concluding: “The RCT must be on top, it cannot be otherwise. »
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