The Tough Task Of Toulon

With the travel expeditions well underway for Munster’s Red Army and over four thousand supporters expected to invade Marseille over the weekend, the Munster squad will depart for the South of France tomorrow.

The players gathered in Limerick today for an indoor session with the final training run taking place tomorrow morning before the team and management set off for Shannon airport.

Munster last played Toulon in January 2011 at Stade Mayol in a disappointing outing that saw the province suffer a costly 26-9 defeat, ending their Heineken Cup progress that season.

James Coughlan and Paul O’Connell were both involved that day and have first-hand experience of what lies ahead this Sunday.

Talking about his experience O’Connell said “I’ve only personally played Toulon once in the competition before and we were very well beaten away, and I think they are even a stronger side again than they were back then.

It’s going to be very tough, but that’s what the competition is at this stage. Toulon have incredible talent all across the team, I think they have recruited really well – world class players that love living in Toulon and playing for Toulon. When you see the way they play it’s an incredibly tough task for us.

Our fans have always raised their game for us and I suppose they have their finger on the pulse of the team when knowing when the pressure is big. They know when we are under pressure and they always rise to the occasion. They too will need to play a big role for us.”

“It’s a massive occasion and we’re all really looking forward to it. We have to find that resolve and will to win if we want to beat the current champions” added James Coughlan.

“It’s going to take an 80 minute effort, we can’t leave anything behind. We know it’s going to take everything we have and if we don’t put that performance in we won’t be successful.

From a preparation point of view we need to be focussed and selfish in doing everything we can. The margin for error is so tight so if we make any mistakes we will be punished.”

And like O’Connell, James Coughlan spoke about the importance of the travelling support when he said; “The support is massive, it always is. We wonder where people get the money, the holidays, and the tickets – they are really special days, so we always want to repay that loyalty out on the pitch.”