Johnny Watterson listens as Toulouse winger Emile Ntamack revealssome deep truths about rugby

The bloodline goes something like this. Serge Blanco: the former Biarritz and French full back is sitting two tables away at the pre-match lunch in Toulouse, prosperously bloated and still, unfashionably, smoking. Jean Pierre Reeves: the one-time flanker is in a Paris studio saying things like "rugby is about sharing". In the mind's eye, Reeves still has blood streaking down his bottle-blonde hair.

Emile Ntamack: Ntamack is in the corridor under the Municipal Stadium in Toulouse walking towards us. Last week's full back, today's winger and tomorrow's centre is the only remnant of the Toulouse side which won the inaugural European Cup in 1996, and says, "If we win today, it would be our gift to the city."

The bloodline is a chemistry thing, a French thing. In Hollywood, they would say that the cameras adore these people.

It's also a wonder thing. It's how they disport themselves, their attitude, their flair and instinct, their energy and occasionally their lack of it.

In the corridor we joke about how French rugby players speak about the game, the words they use, how they muddy the waters between rugby the game and rugby the art form. Before Ntamack arrives we huddle like conspiratorial pranksters and dare each other to ask a French man a pretentious and obscure French-styled question. We dare one another to put the microphone under his nose and ask: "Emile, what is rugby truth?"

Ntamack's wide, toothy smile can be seen at 20 paces. This is a more heavily muscled Ntamack than the lithe panther of 10 years ago, but the feline spirit is still abundantly alive. Ntamack maybe hunting for trophies in the twilight of his career, but having played with Stade Toulousain since he was 18, the very fabric of the player and the competition is shot through with the red and black of the southern French club.

Whatever about the astonishing individual quality of the rest of the team, and his role as joint captain with French lock and captain Fabien Pelous, Ntamack still leads.

Stade Toulousain have always valued backs with a cavalier streak, and now, at 33, Ntamack leads the new generation. He is ready to ensure that if they don't win matches, then at least the rugby will breathe. Nicolas Jeanjean (out through injury today), Clement Poitrenaud, Frederic Michalak and Xavier Garbajosa carry the torch.

"Yeah, everything has changed since '96. I think seven years later, the European Cup is the most important competition for clubs," says Ntamack. "I think the rugby has grown up with the competition. I think the rugby is better. Because now you play against different nations, different styles. In France, we play Narbonne, Stade Francais, Perpignan. Yeah, it's good, but it's good also to play different styles.

"I've always played in Toulouse. I started at 18, now I'm 33, a long time. Now you have to practice more often. Of course you change your body too. When I started I was tall but not very tough. As time passed I have become a little different. I've stayed here because of the style and to get to the play-offs every year.

"For other players too, like Trevor (Brennan) and Jean Baptiste Elissalde, they come to Toulouse not just to win the French championship but to play the best rugby you can see in Europe. Trevor made a good choice to play with this team."

The team won nothing last year. Pride bruised, it was seen as no less than an outrage. But the team have not lost perspective on the measure of success or failure. Two years ago an explosion ripped through the AZF Chemical plant in the Toulouse suburbs. It was the worst industrial accident recorded in France and claimed the lives of 30 people, with hundreds injured and thousands of homes destroyed. As a result Stade Toulousain changed their opening match against Leinster, switched the venue to Dublin and lost, and failed to qualify for the quarter-finals.

"The most important thing for the team is to have the right players in the right position. You cannot have 15 young players or 15 experienced players. You need part of each and you need to make the team so that it can be dangerous anywhere on the field.

"I play full back, centre, wing. I think that's good, because you can see different visions and understand the rugby. You can see why another players give you the ball. It's good to move and to be more complete. Yeah, more complete."

Ntamack is one of the celebrity faces selling French Telecom to the population, and has his own line of apparel, NTK. But the glare of his wealth rarely breaks through, and as he is on the pitch, individual and distinctive, so too is he on the street.

"He's the kind of guy who doesn't say much but when he does it will get you moving," says Brennan. "The thing is, he has the respect of the players. He says something and you do it. The club signed him only for one year but I can't see him stopping the way he's going now. The guys slag him, saying he makes money when he sleeps."

They say other things. Everyone on the Toulouse team is sponsored by Peugeot and on match days the players are expected to line up their pristine vehicles conspicuously in front of Stade Earnest Wallon. Ntamack drives his wife's car, a Toyota Starlit, more than 10 years old.

"That's what he is like. You see Emile arriving in his wife's Starlit and parking it right in the middle of all the Peugeots," says Brennan. " She drives his car."

With ball in hand he has lost little of his physical presence or ability to create space for those around him. The instant and deceptive pace and the poise in motion, which once earned him the nickname la panthère noir, are still hurting defences. They still shepherd him in twos.

But this could also be his last European final.

During the Six Nations, 25 players from the squad were involved with France, France A or the French under-21s, and coach Guy Noves occasionally found himself with only seven players at training. Lacking their up-tempo, sweeping game earlier in the year, Toulouse have, once again, begun to find their wings.

"For me rugby is different now from 10 years ago," says Ntamack. "Then teams were not so interested in defence. Space. Big holes. You could run at one, two, three, four players. Now you video other teams and you know very well their style. Now it is the instinct of the player that is important. You can change a game with just one thing. Instinct you cannot see on the video. Instinct nobody knows."

As he lounges against the wall, flaunting his Adonis physique and his insouciance, no one has the brass neck to ask him the guff about "rugby truth". Maybe out of respect you don't want to take the mickey. Maybe he even answered the question.