A CLASS BELOW

Let’s not dodge how good Toulon were on Saturday.

Even with the multitude of international superstars at Bernard Laporte’s disposal and the ramshackle defence they were having to plot their way around, some of the rugby they played simply defied the imagination. Mamuka Gorgodze’s try is one of the best you will see this season, while Martin Castrogiovanni’s score to wrap up the four try bonus point was a beautifully disguised and well worked move that showed the attention to detail that Toulon have.

I read Dewi Morris’ column on Friday before the game where he mentioned that attention to detail and on Saturday he was proved right. While Toulon do have so many great players to mix and match each week, the coaching staff put a lot of pressure on the players to perform, and as a result there is always a desire and a hunger to win that nobody else tends to have. You can say what you want about Mourad Boudjellal’s policy on buying success, but Laporte’s backroom men are just as integral to the trophies at the Felix Mayol.

And to Ulster.

We knew it would be an extremely tall order to win, and so it proved to be, but I’m not sure anybody was quite prepared for how badly we were beaten. Put in the most straightforward way: shipping 60 points to any side, even Toulon, is unacceptable. No matter how many players we were missing due to injuries (ten for those who are counting), you would have hoped we’d put up a better fight than we did.

Eliminate any thoughts of the bonus point, that’s irrelevant. The fact that the Toulon crowd were applauding our tries by the end of the game proves how much they cared that their side had conceded a try bonus point. By the end I’m sure Bernard Laporte couldn’t care less how many tries his side let past them, Toulon were safely into the quarter-finals as pool winners at this point and hadn’t lost any players to injury – as far as the coaches and fans were concerned, when Castrogiovanni crossed for that fourth try, the newspapers flew and the job was done.

Cross to the opposition and Neil Doak could only hold his head in his hands as Louis Ludik, Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding were all taken off the field injured. It brings Ulster’s astronomical injury list up to a painful ten front line players on the sidelines and with only a small handful of players looking like making a return from injury in the next month or so there are serious issues in the physio room back in Belfast.

It furthers many people’s point that the Pro12, specifically the Irish provinces, can no longer be competitive with the money being invested in the Aviva Premiership and the Top14.

When you look at the amount of overseas players that Toulon have, and also Leicester for that matter, it’s a very tall order for the homegrown talent of Ulster to compete. As we saw on Saturday, down ten players, it was impossible for Ulster to compete with the depth of the squad that Toulon had. Juanne Smith goes off? Replace him with Mamuka Gorgodze. Martin Castrogiovanni needs a rest? On comes Carl Hayman. Ali Williams pulls out before the game? Promote French international Romain Taofifenua to the starting line-up.

Ulster lose Chris Henry and the entire province goes into meltdown.

In fairness to Mike McComish he proved everyone wrong and played very well on Saturday, but the issue still remains – none of the Irish provinces have the depth to compete with the Toulons or the Saracens of Europe. Leinster have worrying depth in the second row and in the centre while Munster struggle at scrum-half and the centres. Ulster have problems in the back row and at scrum-half.

How to solve it is another question entirely. Many have called for the NIQ quota (which currently allows each province to have four players who aren’t Irish in their squad) to be lifted to more than four in order for the provinces to be competitive at the highest level, however that’s not necessarily the answer to the question. It didn’t prevent Munster and Leinster being so dominant in the ‘00s and early ‘10s so why should it prevent them now?

Whatever the issue, it’s clear that things need to change in order for Ulster to stand any chance of getting out of their Champions’ Cup in the next few seasons. Yes we got a difficult draw this year, but there’s a chance that we could get a similar pool next season and unless something dramatic changes then you can’t see much improving for 2015/16.

One final thought: what is up with the Toulon pre-game chant?!