Toulon seek revenge against Stade to ease home pain
Paris (AFP) - French champions Toulon do not take defeat lightly especially when it comes at home and on Sunday they will seek to avenge their sole Top 14 home loss this season against Stade Francais.
Stade, though, will not surrender their tag as the only side yet to be beaten at home this term lightly against the leaders, whose head coach Bernard Laporte was the architect of the hosts' rise from obscurity in the 1990's.
Victory for Stade -- whose last French championship triumph was back in 2007 since when their fortunes have dived -- could see them go top of the table if other results go their way as they trail Toulon by just three points.
Second-placed Clermont -- who are two points adrift of Toulon -- are away at struggling Lyon but will be without four French internationals including centre Wesley Fofana as they have been allowed some time off.
Stade Francais are fully aware that Toulon are hell-bent on revenge for the 28-24 defeat in September even if they travel without stalwarts such as centre Maxime Mermoz and scrum-half Sebastien Tillous-Bordes.
"I have not been fooled by their line-up nor what they have been saying," Stade's sporting director Gonzalo Quesada told French rugby publication Midi Olympique.
"I know that our win at Mayol (Toulon's home ground) really annoyed them. When Toulon set their minds on winning away from home they usually get what they want," added the 40-year-old Argentinian, who agreed a new two year contract with Stade on Friday.
Quesada, who welcomes back South African prop Henke van der Merwe to the squad after a three month injury absence, has not been best pleased by only having one full training session with his team ahead of the game because of a league decision to give all Top 14 players four days off over Christmas.
"We will meet Toulon after having just one training session in our legs and that is ridiculous," stormed the Argentinian.
However, Quesada's greatest worry is his lack of options at hooker with only Remi Bonfils fit for action, Georgian prop Zurab Zivania has been allocated as an emergency replacement.
Bonfils for his part is prepared for a gritty contest up front.
"We didn't do anything extraordinary in Toulon," he told Midi Olympique.
"We simply defended really solidly and tried to out muscle them in winning the ball.
"Now the European champions (Toulon) are mad but we are prepared."
While all is relatively serene with Stade and Toulon the same cannot be said about 2013 champions Castres nor the team paying them a visit, Montpellier.
Castres, who only six months ago lost to Toulon in the championship final, are bottom while Montpellier even though they are in sixth -- the last qualifying position for the play-offs -- and ended a seven match losing run with victory over Toulouse last Saturday could be on the verge of seeing head coach Fabien Galthie leave after a successful spell.
Reports in L'Equipe newspaper this week said that Jake White, South Africa's 2007 World Cup winning coach, is to join the club in January and will be Galthie's superior which has left the 45-year-old, according to a close friend, feeling his position is untenable.
"Galthie has the feeling that they want to make him so disgusted that he leaves and therefore is less costly to them in terms of a pay out," the friend told L'Equipe.
Fixtures (kick-offs 1600GMT unless stated):
Toulouse v Racing-Metro (1405), Castres v Montpellier, La Rochelle v Grenoble, Oyonnax v Bayonne, Bordeaux-Begles v Brive, Lyon v Clermont (1700), Stade Francais v Toulon (2000)