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A great weekend spoiled by an outbreak of rugby


By Bull Shark
July 29 2016

Sale have always had - shall we say? - mixed success in European competition. From the heights of a bonus point win away to Clermont, to... well, let Bull Shark tell you.


It was just before Christmas that 150 ‘supporters des Requins’ left behind rainy Manchester and headed to Toulon. The trip started badly with engineering works on the railways making it almost impossible to travel by public transport from any of the surrounding airports. Undeterred, our merry band grouped themselves into hire cars and made for the coast. On the Friday afternoon and over the course of Saturday, Sale’s travelling fans began to mass in the restaurants and bars along the harbour, basking in the warm Mediterranean sunshine. Locals, dressed in winter coats, gloves and scarfs, looked on bemused as ‘les rosbifs’ wandered around town in Sale tops and shorts. Toulon is very compact, with its Old Town, squares and fountains leading down to the sea. It felt a bit strange to be sat outside in the sun, in the middle of December, drinking the local anise flavoured liqueur Pastis by a marina, with France’s massive aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle moored just a short distance from the shore.

On the Saturday night the SSSC organised a meal by the harbour for 40 supporters. The chicken gizzard starter (look it up!) was a big success, although maybe that can be explained by the many bottles of vin rouge. After the meal, a group of supporters made the short stroll over to the RC Toulon clubhouse under the stadium and the drinking and singing lasted into the early hours.

After the obligatory away trip aspirin on the Sunday lunchtime, we made the short trip to the stadium to pick up our match tickets, bumping into Monsieur Wilkinson in the process. From there it was only 100 yards to the Toulon Bulls Supporters Club bar where the RCT friends we had made the previous week were waiting. As you can imagine it was a very sober affair with little vin rouge and Pastis consumed!!! We watched a Toulon tradition where the players are bused to the stadium around 45 minutes before kick-off. The fans line the route from the bus to the stadium and, like a scene out of Gladiator, they form a tunnel for the players to walk down, roared on by the masses.

62-0!!! A score line I never thought I’d see Sale suffer. After a heroic 30 minutes of defence against the star studded might of Toulon, the flood gates literally opened. When the bonus point 4th try was scored, we witnessed another Toulon tradition, as every supporter in the stadium picked up a newspaper and hurled it in the air, reminiscent of the beer trays being flung upwards after tea during an Old Trafford cricket test. The band of Sale fans kept singing and cheering their lads on throughout the match, despite the score line and the lack of alcoholic beer in the ground. After the match we fixed smiles, rather like bayonets and headed back to the Bulls bar where our French friends asked whether we’d prefer pity or ridicule!

 

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