RUGBY/TREVOR BRENNAN'S TOULOUSE DIARY: TREVOR BRENNANon how life in the south of France is going well and why Leinster will triumph in the battle of his former sides at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday
SITTING ON the terrace outside my new bar La Cantina in Sansubra (the old French, or Occitan word, for St Ciprian) drinking my Perrier and a bowl of ice cream after the lunchtime service, I begin to scribble a few notes on a notepad which has half a dozen lunch orders. It’s not easy, as there are many distractions.
It’s 30 degrees, the hottest April they’ve had for many years in France, and then there’s the honking of horns, the siren of the occasional police car or an ambulance whizzing by, and all the lovely ladies who keep emerging from the hole in the ground about 10 feet in front of me.
Yes, I did say the hole in the ground. The metro station is about 10 feet from the terrace. I give a few of the old ‘Hooooly Jay-sus’ to myself, take a sip of my Perrier and continue the scribbling.
And I think about the friends of mine who were over last weekend to see Ireland Under-18 schools play France in the semi-finals of the FIRA Under-18 European Championship in Auch, which is about 80 kilometres from Toulouse. They stayed in Toulouse on the Friday and Saturday, and sitting over a few pints on the terrace on the Saturday afternoon we reminisced over some of our stories from our playing days and some of the other alikadoos who have since passed away in Bective, most recently Joe Nolan.
I was very upset when I heard the news. I was also in Cardiff when Joe died on the night of the Wales-Ireland game. It’s what he was to the club and to everyone. He had time for everybody, young, old. He’d go out of his way to do anything for you. In the five years I played with Bective he was always making the family welcome, he’d buy them a drink and made sure they got food. The odd time he’d throw me a few quid out of his own pocket. Just a lovely, gentle soul. His dream was to be the president of Bective and he was this season.
One story that really stuck out to me was the boys telling how ‘Sweat’ spoke at Joe’s funeral. Joe was always into older women, dating back to his days playing for the college team and one day when the matron was rubbing his leg. Ever since then he had the bug. He worked for Rank Zerox and won a lot of trips because he was the best salesman. On one of these particular trips to Las Vegas, he was sitting at the bar with a lady who was about 30 years his senior. While she went off to powder her nose, another older lady came up to him as he was sipping his cocktail and said: “whatever she’s paying you, I’ll double it”.
While we were telling a few stories, the lads asked me would I ever go back to Ireland. “With this weather and that hole in the ground, what would I go home for? And then there’s that recession.”
Jerry Sexton, Ray McKenna and Peter Guy were the three guys who came over, long-standing mates from my Bective days and now good friends of my family. Young Jerry Sexton, brother of Leinster and Ireland out-half Jonny, was playing in Auch and had a fantastic game. I travelled on the Sunday with Paula after two big nights in the bar. I didn’t get home until 6.30am on Sunday morning as the local GAA team that I sponsor, the Toulouse Gaels, won an international tournament that had teams from Barcelona, Marseilles and Paris. They wear the Mayo colours of red and green.
Leaving the pub the next morning to drive home (don’t worry I wasn’t drinking, just working – work, work and more work) one of the Toulouse Gaels lads who had come into De Danú at 8.30pm the night before turned to me and said: “Jaysus Trev, does it ever get dark in Toulouse?” The birds were singing and sun was shining, as it had been when he arrived. I just fell around laughing.
Jerry Sexton is coming back over this weekend to see the young fella play in the final when the Irish Under-18s play England in Tarbes. The English team, like their French counterparts, have professional and semi-professional players from one to 22, whereas a lot of the Irish lads are still fighting for spots on the academies. Young Sexton is 6’ 5” but the French locks were 6’ 6” and 6’ 7”, and 18 or 19 stone, with the French props anything from 120 to 130 kilos.
The Irish defence was a rock, and they upset the French by winning all their own lineout ball and picking off opposition ball. They rucked and mauled ferociously. There was a capacity crowd of over 7,000 at the semi-final. Other teams, like the Germans and the Dutch, were all screaming for Ireland because they were the underdogs. The 19-17 win made me feel very proud to be Irish. Irish rugby is in a good state if this is typical of what’s coming through.
Toulouse have a big game at home to Bourgoin in the Top 14 today, a must-win game for Stade Toulousain as with a bonus point it would guarantee them a semi-final, with another game at home to Clermont still to play. A lot of their big guns were rested last week in Marseilles against Toulon, a game that they were always going to lose. I think the team that will start today will be 99 per cent of the team which will also start against Leinster.
In addition to that big game, we have an inauguration – or official opening – of La Cantina on Saturday night. It’s been open for the last two months but because of the Six Nations my main partner, William Servat, has been away on duty with the French team. All the players and coaching staff will be there.
Salvatore Perugini also has a small percentage in the place. It’s basically a Spanish style tapas bar on three floors and it’s going well, while De Danú goes from strength to strength. Two weeks ago about 40 Munster fans came over for the Brive match. I was out painting the terrace the day the bus pulled up with Marie Quinlan, Marcus Horan’s parents and others aboard. Although Brive was two hours away, they love Toulouse and are always well looked after.
We had a great sing-song on the Friday night. One of them, John, had the accordion out and dragged me in for one or two songs. I managed to get them all to sing Dublin in the Rare ’Oul Times, but I had to sing along to Limerick You’re a Lady after that. The next day they had the breakfast, went down by bus to see Munster play Brive in a 1.00 kick-off and asked me to reserve half a dozen tables so that they could come back and watch the Leinster-Leicester game.
They tucked into their grub and pints, and to see them in their sea of red shirts cheering for Leinster was great. With the exception of just one fella. Every time Leicester went on the attack or scored, he was up on his feet screaming and shouting. I went over and tapped him on the shoulder and said: “As my mother would say, ‘God have mercy on your soul – shouting for the auld enemy’.” I’m glad to say this sparked great applause from the other 40 Munster fans.
I’ve also started up Trevor Brennan tours (www.trevorbrennanrugbytours.com), which began 18 months ago in Paris when we brought 120 Irish people for the weekend. The idea sprung up coming back from the Lions tour in 2009 while sitting on the plane drinking champagne in business class with my mate Mark Pinsent, with whom I run the business along with another good friend, Jim McGonigle of Clondalkin Travel. There were plenty of people doing what I did on that Lions tour, going over as a host, but there hadn’t been many players who’d put their name to a travel business.
I was an unofficial travel agent for years in Toulouse, organising underage matches against the Toulouse academy or underage teams. They came from Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Leixlip and elsewhere, and I was trying to play rugby at the same time. This year we had 160 people in Rome for Italy-Ireland, 130 for Wales-Ireland, 100-plus for Scotland-Ireland, and we flew 220 people from France for the Ireland game. They all seemed to enjoy themselves. They stayed in the D4 hotel and we organised nights in Kielys and the Guinness Brewery as well as a visit to Jamesons.
One way or the other we’ll be doing a plane for Leinster or Toulouse fans for the final in Cardiff. We’ve already 90 people signed up for the World Cup, be it one, two, three, four or five week tours. The repeat business is very good.
One customer, Philippe Spanghero, son of the former French international Walter, runs a company called Team Biz with Vincent Clerc and Gregory Lamboley which brings clients to Formula One grands prix and major tennis tournaments. He took 107 places on our trip to Dublin and had such a good time that he has already booked 180 places with us for the Scotland-France game next year.
I love the game and it’s given me an awful lot over the last 20 years. Most of what I have today is thanks to rugby. To be able to go to Six Nations games, Heineken Cup games and a World Cup – trips of a lifetime – is a great way of staying involved.
Which brings me to Leinster-Stade Toulouse. What a semi-final. I think it’s a little sad as this should be the final. Leinster should win this, not just because they’re playing at home in front of 50,000-plus fans, and less than 1,000 Toulouse fans making the trip. But the sea of blue, the passion and the following Leinster have created in the last 10 years is incredible. Although I can honestly say Toulouse have had an average season and haven’t played great rugby, they are still top of the French championship and are in a H Cup semi-final.
Like all great teams when they click they can beat anybody in the world. They remind me of Ireland in the Six Nations, when they played below par rugby against Italy, Wales and Scotland, but in the final game against an English team going for a Grand Slam, they blew them out of the water.
Toulouse have their injury worries in key positions – like Thierry Dusautoir, Byron Kelleher, Sylvain Nicolas, Frederic Michalak, Arnesto Basualdo and Benoit Lecouls – and Daan Human picked up a knock against Toulon. They are short on props and at scrumhalf. But they have the biggest budget in French rugby and on any given day they can manage to put out a team of current or past internationals.
And if they secure a Top 14 semi-final place today, which they should do, that semi-final won’t be until a week after the Heineken Cup final. They can concentrate fully on Leinster and Europe. And, like Ireland, I think there is a big game in Toulouse.
(In an interview with Gerry Thornley)
