Gerry Thornley: Leo Cullen rightly wary of the huge threat Toulouse pose

There’s always a different frisson in the air when Stade Toulousain are the opposition. The inaugural European Cup winners remain the benchmark.

Given they have won this competition more than anyone else, and won the Bouclier de Brennus more (21 times) than any other French club, it is not unreasonable to describe them as the most successful ‘club’ side in the global game.

Had Toulouse not been the inaugural winners, to be followed by a brilliant Brive team in the second season of 1996-97, and remained such pro-Europeans amid so many Eurosceptics, heaven knows how the history of this troubled Heineken Champions Cup might have panned out.

Toulouse, as much any team, give this competition its status and its allure. The distinctive rouge et noire have always been standard-bearers and their brand of offloading rugby has illuminated this competition.

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Nor have they have ever been a chequebook team, for there has always been a sense of identity, a DNA running through the club ever since former players Pierre Villepreux and Jean-Claude returned to the club in 1982 and reinvented Toulouse, and by extension the then austere French game, with their philosophy of heads-up, ‘total’ rugby.

This is also reflected in the umbilical links with previous teams and with previous winners of this competition.

Romain Ntamack is the son of Emile, the legendary winger on that inaugural 1996 European Cup-winning side and Josh Brennan is, of course, son of Trevor, who played in the victorious 2002-03 and 2004-05 sides.

[ Trevor Brennan: ‘If Toulouse hadn’t qualified I’d be glued to the telly shouting for Leinster’ ]

The head coach Mola played in that 1995 final on the wing as a replacement. So did the club president, Didier Lacroix, a former backrow for whom that final was one of his 350-plus games for Stade Toulousain.

The backs coach, Clément Poitrenaud, spent virtually his entire playing career at Toulouse, including five Champions Cup finals and the wins of 2003, 2005 and 2010. The forwards coach, Jean Bouilhou, is a former flanker who also played in those three finals, starting in 2003 and 2010, and featuring as a replacement in 2005.

Back in the mid-1990s, when Toulouse were beating Munster 60-19, Leinster by 34-25 in Donnybrook and 38-19 in Stade Ernest Wallon, followed by a 39-3 dismantling at home of Ulster in the first three seasons of the competition, it seemed like they would be light years ahead of Irish teams for many years to come.

As it transpired, Ulster not only avenged the latter defeat in the return game at the old Ravenhill. Furthermore, thanks to Toulouse slipping up away to Ebbw Vale after putting 100 points on the Welsh club at home, Ulster hosted the rouge et noire again in the quarter-finals, when their 15-13 win paved the way toward beating Stade Francais at home in the semi-finals and Colomiers in the final in the old Lansdowne Road.

Leinster would be beaten 40-10 in Toulouse in the 2001-02 pool stages, although their stunning 43-7 win in the reverse fixture at Donnybrook removed any inferior complex thereafter.

Over the years, the Irish sides have gone toe to toe with Toulouse, beating them 20 times while drawing once and losing 23 times. On the back of winning the last three clashes, Leinster now hold a 7-6 lead in the head-to-head, and this includes the last three semi-finals, all at the Aviva, in 2011, 2019 and last year.

But Leo Cullen’s extended and unusually revealing press conference last Monday not only betrayed Leinster’s annoyance over the EPCR not ensuring this prospective game of the season is a sell-out, but also how ‘home’ advantage is a guarantee of nothing against a more dangerous Toulouse side than a year ago.

“Toulouse have five stars on their jerseys, we have, what, four stars on our jerseys. Watching Toulouse in the early days, watching them beat Cardiff in the final after Cardiff beat Leinster, Toulouse seemed like they were on a different stratosphere to Leinster Rugby at that moment in time.

“People have short memories. That’s my memory thinking back to how they’ve been formed, childhood memories thinking Toulouse were at a different level. We’ve tried to narrow the gap and we’re still chasing them.

“They’re still the most successful team in the competition and it will have stung them losing the semi-final last year. They’ve rested up their team at the weekend and it’s clear what their focus is – it’s coming after us. We need to make sure we’re ready for it and do everything we can to deliver on the big days.”

Cullen’s various musings were also in response to how we in the media and the wider rugby public appear to anticipate a routine home win.

“But it’s just a semi-final, everyone is going on again, waxing lyrical about the semi-final and it was as if we had to just turn up for the final. But again, you could be going up against a team like La Rochelle in the final, unbelievably heavily-resourced, top French players, top foreign players.

“That’s what you’re up against. You’re up against the top teams and they only lap up all that media stuff that all you guys have delivered. The hype is like, you’ve got to control it. That’s the game.”

Old respects die hard, and rightly so.