Knee surgery, and a back row missing its spine
Jack Willis went under the knife. That single line reshapes Toulouse’s opening weekend, because Anthony Jelonch is not available either, and the reigning French champions now travel to La Rochelle with two of the biggest names in their back row watching from elsewhere.
Of all the fixtures to draw first, this is the one you want a full squad for. La Rochelle at home, round one, on a pitch where nothing arrives cheaply.
Willis had turned himself into a fixture of the side almost from the moment he landed in France. Jelonch has been fighting his body for months. Losing them in the same week hands the coaching staff a problem with no obvious solution.
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Chasing a fifth title nobody has ever won
Toulouse are going for five French championships in a row. That has never been done, by anyone, in the history of the competition.
The salary cap case has been running alongside all of it, generating sanctions, headlines and a steady stream of criticism from outside the club. The internal line has not moved: close ranks, play rugby.
La Rochelle know exactly what is coming
Stade Rochelais have met Toulouse at every stage of this competition over recent seasons, in finals, in semi-finals, in league games that felt like both. There are no surprises left between these two.
What Toulouse do have is depth, and few squads in France carry more of it. They are about to find out how much of that depth is genuinely first-team standard. The rest of the Top 14 kicks off on Saturday.
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