2023-05-12 14:54:12
For sixty years, Toulouse has left its mark on French rugby, with an impressive track record. Above all, the Stadium knew how to impose a style of play, a way of thinking, of acting, of playing. “Playing the Toulouse way” is often akin to “playing rugby well”, in a spectacular way, in a style often approached, never equaled, with formidable efficiency.
But where does this style come from? Who invented this “game of hands, game of Toulouse” whose merits are praised everywhere on the rugby planet? This identity, rooted between the Capitole and Saint-Sernin, the Ponts-Jumeaux and Ernest-Wallon, dates back to the 1960s, when Paul Blanc, a former club player promoted to coach of the red and black, laid the foundations of total rugby, inspired by the All Blacks, where the general movement turned into a whirlwind that made all his opponents dizzy. Robert Bru (1980-88) added a method. Then, from Claude Labatut to Ugo Mola, via Jean Gajan, Pierre Villepreux, Jean-Claude Skrela, Albert Cigagna, Serge Laïrle or Guy Novès, all added a stone to the building.
A book that plunges the reader into the perpetual movement that is the universe of Stade Toulousain, a chain of crossed passes, redoubled, skipped, between mad races and strokes of genius.
Gilles Navarro, former great reporter for L’Équipe, specialist in rugby, continues to bring his expertise to the pages of L’Indépendant or on the airwaves of RTL. He is the author at Solar of the biographies of Vincent Clerc (2018) and Guilhem Guirado (2022).
Stade Toulousain, the art of the game in motion / By Gilles Navarro / Released May 11, 2023 by Solar Editions / 18.90 euros / 288 pages
1684442370
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