Top 14: exasperated supporters, casual players..., RC Toulon in turmoil

From misunderstandings to betrayals, the relationship between the Rugby Club Toulonnais and its supporters has not been smooth sailing for a long time. But a milestone has been reached in recent months and the flame is very close to going out. The last gasp? The little sentence thrown around by the Var manager, Pierre Mignoni. “Stop talking about the top 6, I don’t care! It’s been five years since the club has been in the top 6. You will wait another year if we are not there this year…” A rant experienced as an attack by RCT supporters who are worried , for months, of the sports policy of their favorite club, of its communication choices, of its passivity in the face of the lack of involvement of part of the workforce.

This outing was one too many for some. Like Eric, loyal for 34 years, who cut out his membership cards. A video published on the X network which has had more than a million views and generated hundreds of messages of support. The supporters have reached the breaking point, exasperated by the laxity towards certain players who do not respect the jersey.

In support of these accusations, an extract from a WhatsApp message from Mignoni to his players, revealed by L'Équipe (and which earned the journalist an outraged and lunar exit from the manager…): “For smokers, cleaning from your smoker. This room will be closed. The RCT institution can no longer accept this. If you are not happy, you can change clubs or call me, I am available.

The club therefore authorized its professional players to smoke, providing them with a place for this purpose! This revelation opened the floodgates of testimonies and recriminations on social networks. Pointed out, part of the workforce – always the same… – regularly seen in bars and nightclubs in Toulon (or its surroundings), in a regularly advanced state of intoxication. Among them, players who are so out of touch that they don't even exist, posting videos of their festive evenings on their public accounts.

For the fans, enough is enough. While the results are catastrophic (10 defeats in the last 13 matches), these harmful attitudes are exasperating. Confirm that these players have no use for the historic club whose jersey they wear and see “the Toulon basin as a huge holiday center”. Without having to fear the wrath of the staff according to the dissatisfied. Hence a scathing open letter.

For these faithful, these behaviors are only a consequence of the management's choices aimed only at "sanitizing" a once passionate club, making it "more tasteless and ordinary", or even "deconstructing" the Mayol stadium. Without forgetting the recurring criticism of the “lack of consideration for the Minots”, these young people trained at the club and too often asked to continue their careers elsewhere. Latest example: the announcement in mid-March of the departure of pillar Bruce Devaux, native of Toulon and 13 seasons at the club, for Perpignan.

The crisis had been brewing for a long time and the attempts of the RCT leaders to patch things up with their public fizzled out. “Meetings for the image but without tangible results,” insists the press release from the main supporters’ associations, referring to a “growing gap”. A rupture deep enough to push the president-owner of the Var club, Bernard Lemaitre, to make yet another attempt at great reconciliation.

In the columns of Var-Matin, he launched into cuddle therapy. “Considering myself for more than four years as the first supporter of the RCT through my daily commitment, the energy that I devote to it and the fortune that I invest in it to keep it afloat, I take responsibility for our sporting results , far from our common hopes. This is why I fully accept the content of the open letter published by some of us. I understand and share the frustration and even the suffering that is expressed. Neither deaf nor blind, I am fully mobilizing with Pierre Mignoni so that our RCT regains its rank. In the immediate future, the urgency is to concentrate on preparing for the match against Montpellier. I will personally speak to each of the 23 players chosen for this momentous meeting. After this match, I will speak in full and detail to the widest possible audience of supporters on the policy I have undertaken for the RCT.

A debate meeting will take place next Tuesday at the RCT Campus with “all the club’s partners, subscribers and supporters”. If by chance, the Toulon players were to lose at home against Montpellier, this Saturday at the opening of the 19th day of Top 14, the discussions, already announced tense, could become downright heated...