Trevor Brennan's Diary: It's been an eventful few weeks for 'The Horsebox'
Well, as it stands in the French Championship, we're still on top. We've played 12 games, won nine and lost three, and with nine bonus points stand on 42. But after a win over Castres, we've lost our last two, against Clermont Auvergne and Brive, and now Perpignan are only a point behind us, with Biarritz on 39, Paris on 38 and Bourgoin on 37. The chasing pack have closed in.
It was disappointing to lose our last two games, especially to Brive by 10-9 on Saturday. It's been a tough few weeks without our French internationals, one Welshman (Gareth) and one Argentinian (Omar Hasan), though at least we didn't play every week.
The club have signed what are called two 'jokers', that being two players brought in mid-season to fill two positions hit by injuries. Maili Calvorie is a Fijian centre-cum-winger who takes Benoit Baby's place.
Poor Benoit has done his cruciate knee and won't be back until April. That's the second time in two years. He did the left last season, now he's done the right. If anybody is feeling down about their injuries, they only have to think about Benoit.
We've also signed Slade McFarland, a good Scottish name, who's a hooker from North Harbour. He's come in for William Servat, whose neck operation means he won't play against until next September.
Everyone seems to be winning awards in Toulouse these days. Last night, I went around to Alfie's house to watch the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year awards, as voted for by the viewers, as he has BBC Wales. Alfie won it, beating the likes of Joe Calzaghi and Ryan Giggs. In a year when he captained Wales and they won the Grand Slam, and captained the Lions, and also won a European Cup winners medal, he was a shoo-in. Being Alfie, he thanked all his family for their unstinting support over the years and stressed that rugby was a team sport and that his award was for the Welsh team.
Yannick Jauzion recently won the French Championship Player of the Year and was also picked on a World XV along with Yannick Nyanga, who has been the find of the season for the club this year.
Jauzion is such a down to earth fella in every sense. He comes from a farming background in Agen and studies agriculture. He works part-time too in a bank on his days off from rugby. Nothing fazes him. To him, he's just doing a job. But what a job he does for us.
He weighs in at 106 kilos and is 6' 5". You could put him in 'the row' in any team. He's very quick, and runs great lines. It usually takes two or three people to stop him and yet he also has a great gift for making offloads in the tackle. He opens up gaps for us all the time.
Nyanga's work-rate is phenomenal. He tackles, tackles, tackles. He'll make four in a row in one phase of play. He's also a good line-out option for us, especially on defence, and he's very, very quick. As a bloke, he's also a good laugh. He's the new playboy of Stade Toulousain. Single, good-looking, black, 23. That says it all.
And then there was The Horsebox, T Brennan, who was invited to the 48th Texaco Sportstars Awards as the rugby sports star of 2005. As I'm playing my rugby in France I was honoured to be thought about and acknowledged by my fellow Irish men and women. It was an unforgettable night and I was humbled to be in the presence of so many great Irish sports people. Memories are made from night's like that and I felt blessed again to be doing something I love for a living. Thank you rugby.
At the end of the night I was getting tips from Paul Scallan from Wexford and his mate Wayne from Cork, both apprentices in Aiden O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard, who were there to pick up an award on behalf of Kieren Fallon. Des Cahill introduced them to me and we posed for a photograph with me holding one up on either arm. They were amazed, but as they weighed only about 18 stone between them, for someone who weighs 18 stone that would be nothing. A great photo. One for the book.
The da was bowled over by Ronnie Delaney, an athletics legend, coming over and tapping me on the shoulder to congratulate me and later coming over to wish me the best for the rest of the season with Toulouse. A pure gentleman.
It was also great to see the old clips of Johnny Giles and meet him that night, and I exchanged a few bon mots with Mary Kennedy, who hosted the night with Des Cahill, on the stage.
We were all getting our photograph taken with Bertie beforehand, the 11 individual winners and the four-man rowing team, and posing for Setanta and RTÉ. The bigger ones stood at the back, and Jimmy Magee, four foot nothing, was standing directly in front of me. Then a voice shouted out - I think it was Des Cahill: "Sit down Jimmy, you're blocking Trevor's view."
Alfie also brought me over to Wales for the weekend they played South Africa, and I had a fantastic time, staying in Alfie's house just across the road from the Vale of Glamorgan where the Welsh squad is based. About 100 yards from his house was his local, The Farmer's Bar, and I ended up having to get a taxi home. That tells you how much I enjoyed myself there.
On match day, Myself and Paula got the red carpet treatment. On the coach with the players' wives to the game, on the team bus coming back to the reception. That night Mike Ruddock ended up in a corner of the room telling Martyn Williams and Shane Williams about an incident when he was coach with Leinster.
We'd just lost narrowly away to Munster and on the following Monday he went through us at the team meeting. He was asking Bob Casey if he was scared of Mick Galwey. He was asking Reggie Corrigan if he was scared of Peter Clohessy. One by one he went through us, telling us he had a pair of boxing gloves in his car boot and he'd fight anyone who was on for it. When he came to me, he said: "Trevor," and paused. I'm thinking, right, we're on for it.
The car park. Right now. The lads told me afterwards they were thinking: "No Mike, don't." After a few seconds he said: "Trevor, you're alright." We'll probably never have that boxing match now.
Back to reality this week. Preparations are under way for our match away to Edinburgh in the Heineken Cup. I'm hoping we can lift ourselves up after our two defeats in the Top 14. We lost away to Edinburgh in the pool stages two seasons ago and they're a better team now, as they showed with their win over Wasps at home. It's going to be a tough game, and as Guy Noves complained in an interview with L'Equipe yesterday, the November internationals have drained us.
But a third defeat in a row would be just unacceptable for a team like Toulouse.
(Trevor Brennan's regular Heineken Cup column can be read on the ERC website, which is at www.ercrugby.com)
(In an interview with Gerry Thornley)
