The RCT's late revolt in Pau... for a mountain of regrets

On the plane home, some players harbored a ton of regrets, while others struggled to shake off a deep sense of anger. But to be honest, everyone was struggling to process the 80 minutes they had just experienced.

Should Toulon be celebrating their last half hour? Or be beating themselves up over their first fifty minutes in hell? "I feel annoyed and frustrated," Enzo Hervé declared. "We came here to stay in touch with second place, and in the end we only played one half. Pau put in a lot of commitment, and we perhaps weren't ready to respond at the start. Afterwards, we reacted, but it was too late."

"In the first half, we didn't respect each other."

From complacent to radiant. From apathetic to ecstatic. For an unequivocal result: 25-0 in the first 48 minutes, 0-21 in the next 32, after Toulon finally decided to play by hand, to look for space and punish the Pau players in the rucks. As if the RCT had waited until they were on the brink of collapse to raise their heads. So, bitter at having lost by a hair's breadth or angry after their first fifty minutes? "For me, we can't call it a cruel defeat, because in the first half we didn't respect ourselves," castigated Pierre Mignoni. "We took initiatives but not hard-hitting enough. Or we broke but lost the ball after three phases."

Throughout the match, Toulon lost a ton of balls and made… sixteen knock-ons. "Was the ball slipping? Certainly not. It was very good, and for both teams! There were spaces, but in this game, you have to hold the ball, have quick support and switch on at the same time to destabilize a defense… The Pau players have the right to play well, but we don't have the right to do what we did in the first half. It's starting to piss me off." The awakening, the revolt and the face displayed at the end of the match finally allowed Toulon to grab a bonus.

Three losses in a row, a first this season

Not enough, however, to put a smile back on the manager's face, as his team has just suffered three defeats in a row (something he hasn't seen this season). "Since the quarter-final [of the Champions Cup lost against Toulouse] , we've been in a tough spot. But that was over a month ago... Normally, emotions only last five minutes, except that when you repeat and maintain negative emotions, they stay, you feed them and you're not what you should be," whispered "Pierrot", before, as always, returning to the fight. "I hope the second half will do the guys some good. It confirms for me that we're capable of it."

Capable of doing great things? If he plays like he did for fifty minutes, this RCT can't hope to look Toulouse or Bordeaux in the eye at the end of the season. If he enjoys himself again, dominates the impacts, restarts wisely and proves irresistible like he did in the last half hour, this RCT can dream (very) big. It's up to Toulon to choose the path they wish to take in the coming weeks...