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Trevor's Diary


nikos

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Bonjour encore. It's that time of year again; Heineken Cup time. It's also hard to believe that I'm going into my fourth year here at Toulouse, and maybe also my last, as my contract is up at the end of the season. But it's been a great experience so far; four finals and two semi-finals in three years, and I'm still hungry for more.

So what's been happening since we lifted the Heineken Cup? We spent most of the summer in France, visiting the Basque country around Biarritz and San Sebastian, and the Catalan side of France also. We loved it so much that we ended up buying a mobile home in a campsite in Vias, between Beziers and Narbonne. Gerry Thornley is handling the calls for the 06 summer season. (Good value, no bogus calls!).

Spending the summer in France gave me a better insight into the way of life here and what I really noticed this year is that nothing happens in August, especially in the cities or the bigger towns. If it doesn't have a beach, it closes for the month. Bars, restaurants, shops, you name it, it closes. And those that do stay open don't have any customers.

French workers just don't work after 2.00 in August. You won't find a place to eat in unless it's fast food or a sandwich in a petrol station. And if you arrive on a Sunday in August, you're fooked. In fact, any other time of the year on a Sunday, you're really in trouble if you forget to buy, tea, milk, bread, butter, cigarettes or whatever. It's cold turkey until Monday or else you have to drive the length and breadth of the country.

In September and October, it's more mushroom and wine season. A neighbour popped around the other day with a big bag of mushrooms for us, and they were the size of footballs. I'm not exaggerating. You have to cut them and slice them and mix them with garlic. Lovely. Lots of French people have their own patches for growing mushrooms but they'll never tell you exactly where they are. They point vaguely to various points in the hills or mountains.

In these months you also see loads of men and women out picking grapes for the first of the season's wines. Beaujolais Nouveau is usually the first wine that comes on the market. It's always cheap, awful, and blows the head off you. They call it the worker's wine. But picking the grapes and tucking into the Beaujolais Nouveau is a big custom all over France around this time of the year.

And what of the rugby? A few players have left since the start of last season. Patrice Collazo, the prop, has gone to Gloucester; Christian Labit has gone to Narbonne, Jean-Frederic Dubois, the scrumhalf, has gone to Perpignan and surprisingly, five games into the season, David Gerard upped and went to Northampton.

In came Yannick Nyanga, the outstanding backrower for France last year, from Beziers, who's signing for the club was almost as complicated as my own. I'll tell you about that another time. Also Gregory Menkarska, a very good scrummager from Auch, joined, and the one and only Aiden McCullen. What can I say about Lard? He's fitted in very well in the Toulouse set-up. That he speaks fluent French is an advantage, and he has a great sense of humour. He started the first five games and has been changing with Isitolo Maka for the last four.

Ever since I came here we always seem to lose two or three of our first four games, but this season we won our first eight, which they say isToulouse's best start to a championship. What was very unusual is that fourof them were away. We beat Bayonne (26-12), Montpellier (24-12), Toulon (18-15) and Agen (33-16 on the road, and at home we've beaten Pau (52-9), Narbonne (64-22), Perpignan (30-22) and Biarritz (26-20).

Nyanga has really shone. What's most impressive about him is his speed. Whenever there's a breakdown, he always seems to be there, he's very fast up in defence, getting chargedowns on outhalves or scrumhalves' box kicks, and although he's not a big man in the line-outs he's very good to throw up defensively.

Aiden has been playing at number eight mostly because the club wouldn't play Izzy (Maka) for the first five game until he got his weight down to 130 kilos; he came back at the start of the season at 145 kilos. Since then though, he's really shone too so Aiden is going to have his hands full. He played seven last week as Nyanga was rested and Finau Maka was forced to pull out for the much-hyped game against Stade Francais in Paris in front of 80,000 people in the Stade de France.

Max Guazzini, their owner and marketing legend, ensured a world record for a club game. The bands, cheerleaders, fire eaters before the game and at half-time made it a carnival atmosphere. It all reminded me of a story with Leinster when we played Stade Francais in Paris five or six seasons ago. Myself and Victor Costello were standing beside each other in the tunnel and had to run through a huge Stade Francais flag. When we went through that we had to run between two lines of cheerleaders. I said to him: 'Holy God Victor, wha't going on here.' In the huddle I have to admit myself and Victor were slightly distracted. Sure enough, five minutes into the game Victor sustained a rib injury and had to sit out the rest of the match with the cheerleaders.

Not unlike that day, Toulouse were 26-0 down at half-time. We did win the second-half 15-3 but in many ways the defeat might have done us some good. We had been walking on air, and that brought us back down to earth before the Heineken Cup. Guy Noves hadn't said much during the winning run, but on Saturday night we were already dreading the video session on Monday. Even as a professional rugby player, you never get used to that. The thought of a video session can keep you awake at night if you haven't played well, and it wasn't one of my best games (or anyone's, for that matter). And Guy Noves was back screaming and shouting when highlighting fellas' mistakes.

Against Llanelli on Saturday we'll hopefully bounce back, and we'll be looking to do just that. I've been carrying a shoulder injury since Saturday, which I hope will come right with daily treatment. I want to play in this one.

ercrugby.com

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It's also hard to believe that I'm going into my fourth year here at Toulouse, and maybe also my last, as my contract is up at the end of the season.

:(:huh::(B)

ca commence bien

Modifié par nikos
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:P:(:P:huh:

ca commence bien

no panic!

ca veut juste dire qu il est en fin de contrat! ca ne veut pas dire qu il veut partir (ca, ca m etonnerait) ou qu on ne va pas lui proposer un nouveau contrat!

et de tte facon, il irait ou, c est ou qu il y a mieux pr lui? :( : whist :P:P

j aime bien le journal de trevor! en plus, ca me force a lire de l anglais! B)

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Oh je m'inquiete pas beaucoup, je pense qu'il resignera. En tout cas il a deja clairement dis qu'il voulait rester a Toulouse.

Moi j'aime bien le passage ou Victor Costello se blesse pour rester avec les pom-poms girsl B)

Il fais aussi une belle eloge des nouveaux arrivant, surtout de Nyanga.

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Not unlike that day, Toulouse were 26-0 down at half-time. We did win the second-half 15-3 but in many ways the defeat might have done us some good. We had been walking on air, and that brought us back down to earth before the Heineken Cup. Guy Noves hadn't said much during the winning run, but on Saturday night we were already dreading the video session on Monday. Even as a professional rugby player, you never get used to that. The thought of a video session can keep you awake at night if you haven't played well, and it wasn't one of my best games (or anyone's, for that matter). And Guy Noves was back screaming and shouting when highlighting fellas' mistakes.

La savonnette de noves qui fait peur. : whist : whist on se demand pourquoi

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D'un autre côté, au vu du pack qui était aligné, c'est un peu facile de tomber sur les joueurs individuellement. Le problème a d'abord été collectif.

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traduction à peu près :

Ainsi ce qui est arrivé puisque(depuis que) nous avons soulevé la Tasse Heineken ? Nous avons dépensé(passé) la plupart de l'été en France, visitant le pays basque autour de Biarritz et Sebastian San et le côté catalan de la France aussi. Nous l'avons aimé tellement que nous avons terminé d'acheter un portable à la maison dans un camping dans Vias, entre Beziers et Narbonne. Gerry Thornley traite les appels de la 06 somme

Les dépenses de l'été en France m'ont donné une meilleure compréhension(idée) dans le mode de vie ici et ce que j'ai vraiment remarqué cette année est que rien n'arrive en août, particulièrement dans les villes ou les villes plus grandes. S'il n'a pas de plage, il ferme pendant le mois. Des barres(bars), des restaurants, des magasins, vous le nommez, il ferme. Et ceux qui restent ouverts n'ont pas de clients.

Des ouvriers français ne travaillent pas juste après 2.00 en août. Vous ne constaterez pas que de place mange dans à moins que ce n'est la restauration rapide ou un sandwich dans un poste d'essence. Et si vous arrivez sur un dimanche en août, vous êtes fooked. En fait, un autre temps de l'année sur un dimanche, vous êtes vraiment dans l'ennui si vous oubliez d'acheter, le thé, le lait, le pain, le beurre, des cigarettes ou quelque chose de la sorte. Il fait froid turke

En septembre et octobre, c'est plus de champignon et la saison de vin. Un voisin a passé autour l'autre jour avec un grand sac de champignons pour nous et ils étaient la taille de footballs. Je n'exagère pas. Vous devez les couper et la tranche eux et les mélanger avec l'ail. Beau. Tas de Français a leurs pièces propres pour des champignons en croissance mais ils ne vous diront jamais

Dans ces mois vous voyez aussi les charges d'hommes et des femmes du choix de raisins pour le premier des vins de la saison. Beaujolais Nouveau est d'habitude le premier vin qui vient sur le marché. C'est toujours bon marché, terrible et souffle la tête de vous. Ils l'appellent le vin de l'ouvrier. Mais le choix des raisins et mettant dans le Beaujolais Nouveau est une grande tradition partout la France

Et que du rugby ? Quelques acteurs(joueurs) sont partis depuis le début de la dernière saison. Patrice Collazo, l'appui vertical, est parti à Gloucester; Christian Labit est parti à Narbonne, Jean-Frederic Dubois, le scrumhalf, est parti à Perpignan et étonnamment, cinq jeux dans la saison, David Gerard upped et est allé à Northampton.

Dans est venu Yannick Nyanga, backrower remarquable(en suspens) pour la France l'année dernière, de Beziers, qui signe pour le club a été presque aussi compliqué que mon propre. Je vous parlerai de cet autre temps. Aussi Grégoire Menkarska, très bon scrummager d'Auch, joint(rejoint) et uniques Aiden McCullen. Qu'est-ce que je peux dire du Saindoux ? Il est adapté dans très bien dans le Toulouse

Depuis que je suis venu ici nous semblons toujours perdre deux ou trois de nos quatre premiers jeux, mais cette saison nous avons gagné nos premiers huit, qu'ils disent le meilleur début de l'isToulouse's à un championnat. Ce qui était très inhabituel est que fourof eux était loin. Nous battons Bayonne (26-12), Montpellier (24-12), Toulon (18-15) et Agen (33-16 sur la route et à la maison nous avons battu Pau (52-9)

Nyanga a vraiment brillé. Ce qui est le plus impressionnant de lui est sa vitesse. Chaque fois qu'il y a une panne(répartition), il semble toujours être là, il est très rapide en haut dans la défense, obtenant chargedowns sur outhalves ou les coups de pied de boîte du scrumhalves' et bien qu'il ne soit pas un grand homme à la ligne-outs qu'il est très bon pour jeter défensivement.

Aiden a joué à numéro huit surtout parce que le club ne jouerait pas Izzy (Maka) pour le cinq premier jeu avant qu'il n'ait obtenu son poids en bas à 130 kilos; il est revenu au début de la saison à 145 kilos. Depuis lors quoique, il ait vraiment brillé aussi donc Aiden va avoir ses mains pleines. Il a joué sept la semaine dernière comme Nyanga a donné du repos et Finau Maka A été forcé de retirer pour le jeu très gonflé contre Stade Francais à Paris devant 80,000 personnes dans le Stade de la France.

Max Guazzini, leur propriétaire et la légende de marketing, ont assuré un record du monde pour un jeu de club. Les bandes(orchestres), des meneurs, des avaleurs du feu avant le jeu et au mi-temps l'ont fait une atmosphère de carnaval. Tout cela m'a rappelé d'une histoire avec Leinster quand nous avons joué Stade Francais à Paris cinq ou six saisons. Moi-même et Victor Costello étaient debout l'un à côté de l'autre dans le tunnel et a dû passer en courant dans Stade énorme Francais le drapeau. Quand nous l'avons passé nous avons dû fonctionner(courir) entre deux lignes de meneurs. Je lui ai dit : ' Dieu saint Victor, wha't continuant ici. ' Dans le fourrant je dois m'admettre et le Vainqueur a été légèrement distrait. Assez sûr, cinq minutes dans le Vainqueur de jeu ont supporté une blessure de nervure et ont dû être assises du reste de l'allumette(du match) avec les meneurs.

Ne ressemblant pas ce jour, Toulouse était 26-0 en bas au mi-temps. Nous avons vraiment gagné la deuxième moitié 15-3, mais de beaucoup de façons que la défaite pourrait nous avoir faites certains bons. NoEt novembres de Type étaient en arrière des cris perçants et des cris en mettant en évidence les erreurs du fellas'.

Et Guy Noves était en arrière des cris perçants et des cris en mettant en évidence les erreurs du fellas'.

Contre Llanelli samedi nous rebondirons avec bon espoir en arrière et nous regarderons pour faire juste cela. J'ai porté une blessure d'épaule depuis samedi, que j'espère viendra directement avec le traitement quotidien. Je veux jouer dans celui-ci.

A peu près... :lol:

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Well, 47 family and friends flew over last Friday for our Heineken Cup opener against Llanelli, and a few other things. They arrived that morning and at around tea-time, I was in the team hotel when I got a phone call from one of them. He was lost and looking for directions to the De Danu.

A group of them had turned up at their hotel at 11.00 in the morning but the rooms weren't ready so they weren't able to check in, so they went on a sight-seeing tour; of the pubs in Toulouse. Apparently they'd had a great sing-song in Place Capital, where they'd also played rugby with a miniature ball.

The squad had assembled that morning to take a coach to the hotel, returning to le Stade at 3.45 for our captain's run, then back to the hotel for dinner at 6.00. Most of the squad stayed in the team room to watch the Bourgoin-Glasgow game but I slipped out with Aiden McCullen and Yannick Nyanga across the road to a little English bar which had Sky Sports and was showing the Sale-Munster game. Yannick speaks very good English and had more interest in that game. A good judge.

It was a typical gutsy, physical effort by Munster which deserved a little better but a few handling errors let them down. But in saying that, Sebastien Chabal, the Caveman, was on great form and unstoppable going forward along with Andrew Sheridan, the prop.

On match day I had a lie-on before Alfie turned up. He had gone home to get a good night's sleep. He's done this for all the home games this season. He gets his wife Gemma to pick him up after dinner and she drops him back on the morning of the match, the reason being that when I get going it's like a train pulling out of Heuston Station.

I was telling Alfie that I was a bit offended, and asking him if it was really that bad. "Trevor, no offence mate, but I compare it to the new Airbus 380 taking off from Toulouse airport." Well, he wouldn't be the first rugby player over the years who'd had a sleepless night because of the Horsebox's snoring.

The previous evening I'd noticed Freddie Michalak wearing one of his latest sponsorship t-shirts; a red, rugbytec shirt with number eight and the Munster crest, along with M-U-N-S-T-E-R emblazoned on it in big letters. I didn't say anything then but the following day when we had a light run-out while everyone else was in Nike gear, Fred still had his Munster t-shirt on.

So I made a comment about it. "Oui, Trevor, chez toi, chez toi." So I smiled back and said: "Oui, Freddie, chez moi." Wonder what the Munster boys would think of that?

We got off to a good winning start against Llanelli, but it had its moments. We were down 6-0 after 15 or 20 minutes. Then Simon Easterby went off and they lost two of their props so we had uncontested scrums. Don't know whether that was a disadvantage or an advantage for us.

Some of the rugby we played was brilliant, although typically French, we tended to take out foot off the gas. But, one impressive feature was that whenever we conceded a score we went back downfield immediately and scored once or twice ourselves. There's still plenty of work to be done on our defence and our penalty count. We can't afford those lapses against Wasps.

Frustratingly, I didn't get on, which is only the third Heineken Cup match I haven't played in out of 28 since I came to Toulouse. I've had a stupid calf injury since last Tuesday, nothing major. But it feels a bit like an Achilles tendon strain whenever you try to sprint. So the coach felt there was no need to risk putting me on as we were winning well and we've enough injuries.

I'd be hopeful of getting a start in the second row this week. I actually haven't started one game in the backrow yet this season, but I need to be training every day this week and I'm still not sure about this stupid calf injury.

I'd like to think Toulouse travel better in this competition than most French sides but the performances of Stade Francais and Biarritz showed that this old French failing is still there. Castres could be dangerous in Thomond Park. Kees Meeuws and Carl Hoeft are playing well and they've a very powerful pack, while Yann Delaigue is hitting a bit of form, but I've no doubt Munster can win although I'm so sorry to hear about Alan Quinlan's injury. I didn't see the Leinster game on Saturday. I believe they were very unlucky but Glasgow will be no pushover and it's win-or-bust for them now.

And what became of the 47 family and friends? About 90% made it to the game, but two of them ended up in Lourdes and five or six of them got lost in town _ doing some more sight-seeing _ and missed the bus to the match. Half of them headed back on Sunday and the other half on Monday.

My good friend Chris Gallagher rang me on Monday morning to say thankyou for a good weekend and told me a very funny story. He said that himself and a few friends had ended up in a night club at about 6.00 on Saturday night/Sunday morning. He was one of those leaving on Sunday morning, when they were being picked up at their hotel at 8.30.

All he can remember is waking up in the middle of the night sitting on the toilet with a fag stuck in the corner of his mouth having done the business. So he pulled up his boxers and went into the bedroom. Pulling back the bed sheets he noticed some-one in it. He started to tell this fella, who looked the spit of Jean-Claude Van Damme, to get out of his bed, but this French fella wasn't budging.

So he shouted across to his roommate, Johnny McGivern, to ask his help in getting this fella out of his bed. But the lump that pulled the bed clothes back in the other bed and sat up wasn't Johnny. He looked like Jean-Claude too.

"This is room 405, get out of my room," he shouted at the pair of them. The two lads, in broken English, explained to Chris that he was in room 409 and not 405, one of them going to the door, opening it and showing it to him, before wishing him a good night. Chris struggled back to his room down the corridor.

In his own room he found all his clothes on the bed. He must have gone back, got undressed, gone to bed, woken up, and somehow gone out the door, bounced off the wall a few times, walked into their room and gone to the toilet. It was one of those hotels that if you didn't lock the doors from the inside they could be opened without a key. Chris reckons he's lucky the two Jean-Claude Van Dammes didn't beat him up. I haven't laughed so much in a long time.

On Sunday myself, Paula, the two kids and Paddy the father-in-law went to the grand rond where we discovered a six-piece jazz band playing on a covered bandstand. It was a lovely sunny day and here was this 80-year-old man telling me that this was his favourite music from the 30s and 40s, that he never thought he'd here anything like it again, and it made his trip more memorable than any rugby match or anything else he'd seen in Toulouse.

Next Sunday we play Wasps in London. It's going to be a tough game, made even tougher by them losing to Edinburgh. It's also a repeat of the final two years ago, when Alain Rolland was also the referee. Déjà vu. The final of two years ago is not something that's been mentioned, but it will be in the back of everyone's heads, and certain players may feel they'll have a point to prove.

My good friend William Servat went in for an operation on his neck yesterday, two hernia discs in his neck I believe, and it looks like he'll miss the rest of the season. The club are now looking to sign a hooker who's played with the Auckland Blues.

The French squad for the autumn tests was announced yesterday too, which created a stir around the club. But Guy Noves reminded everybody that the players' most important consideration this week was the Toulouse game against Wasps. The club came before France. He finished up by reminding the internationals that when they went off "on holidays" next week in camp with the international squad, the rest of us will be working hard, training five days a week. No rest for us then

ercrugby.co.uk

quels sont les talons des blues?

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The final of two years ago is not something that's been mentioned, but it will be in the back of everyone's heads, and certain players may feel they'll have a point to prove.

ah bon?

on ne s en doutait pas! :party::P:lol::lol:

quel bavard ce trevor! :lol:

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My good friend William Servat went in for an operation on his neck yesterday, two hernia discs in his neck I believe, and it looks like he'll miss the rest of the season. The club are now looking to sign a hooker who's played with the Auckland Blues.

j'ai lu trop vite , c'est un ex-talon des blues

de tte façon ca ne pouvait pas etre mealamu (titulaire pour la tournée des blacks), ni witcombe out pour 6 mois pour hernie discale comme servat...

des idées?

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He was lost and looking for directions to the De Danu.

Trevor !!! You should have given him Moza's phone number :lol::lol::P

:party:

c est clair, j aurais joué les GPS! de partout dans toulouse je vous amene au De Danu sans soucis! :P:lol::lol:

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Ils sont fou ces britons!

Nico, il est Irlandais Brennan. Faut pas utiliser le terme "briton"... C'est pas gentil... Moi je suis à moitié Irlandais. Mais je suis PAS DU TOUT a moitié briton! (je dis pas que c'est une insulte! Mais presque... :lol: )

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Castres could be dangerous in Thomond Park. Kees Meeuws and Carl Hoeft are playing well and they've a very powerful pack, while Yann Delaigue is hitting a bit of form (...)

Ben Meeuws et Delaigue ne jouent pas alors bonne chance le C.O.

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Invité Invité_irish

Toulouse lock Trevor Brennan speaks to Gerry Thornley of the Irish Times...

Trevor Brennan's Diary: How do you fit a rugby team into a mini (dressingroom)? Two in the back, two in the front, eight in the showers and the rest in the corridor.

As I pen this week's missive, I've just emerged from a visit to a Chinese acupuncturist in Maynooth while home for a few days. My calf, shoulder and neck have all been at me and he's worked wonders. But as he had me jumping around the room in agony he said in his Chinese accent: "no pain, no gain". I thought I was a fairly hard man but this little fella broke me.

It had been a particularly tough week leading up to and including the Wasps match. Guy Noves had us training every day as he felt we needed it. Some of us were getting "lazy", as he put it. I was still slightly sore on Monday morning with the calf injury I picked up two weeks before so I didn't train, but come Tuesday I knew I had to give it a go to be in with a shout for selection.

I knew after the two sessions that I'd be in the starting XV on Sunday. For all the scrums, lineouts and team runs I was in the starting eight. Even though he wouldn't name his team until Thursday, all the signals were that those of us who'd been on the bench against Llanelli would be rotated to start against Wasps. You always get a feel for these things and that gave me a great lift.

The calf continued to be at me all week, so I just did what I had to. I've finally learnt after all these years that you don't get any medals being a hero in training. When I'm 100 per cent fit I do give it everything. If I aggravated the calf I knew I'd be out so, for a change, I used the top four inches.

On Wednesday, myself and Aidan McCullen went to visit William Servat in hospital following his neck operation. We stopped off at a shop en route to stock up on magazines, drinks, sweets, etc for William. I picked up something from the top shelf as well as a rugby magazine, as did Aidan for a laugh.

When we arrived at his room, his wife, mother, grandmother and father were all there. It caught us by surprise and we hadn't hidden the magazines. On seeing me holding them, William just started to laugh. Then everybody looked around and saw them so I just threw them on the bed and said: "Je suis désolé, tout le monde, pour les magazines". They all got a good laugh out of it, even the grandmother.

I had a nice relaxing week as the kids had a two-week mid-term break over Halloween, so Paula and the boys headed back to Ireland for a fortnight.

Because people knew I was on my own, I was invited to various houses for dinner; Gareth's house one night, my teacher's another night, but I managed to cook for myself three nights. Not bad, and I cleaned up as well.

BANG. Here we were in London by Saturday lunchtime. As usual it was a top-class hotel, as it always is for away European Cup matches, unlike the French championship, when we stay in low budget hotels. I'm not complaining, there's just no comparison with French hotels, which are very basic, even the good ones.

After a nap we had a run-out in a nearby park on one of three rugby pitches. There were about 300-400 people watching a couple of games on the other pitch, but when they saw who was training on the other one they all came across to watch us, leaving one man and his dog watching the two matches.

Later on we watched Munster hammer Castres, a good response from them after last week's defeat to Sale, and Stade Français beating Leicester. What a dreadful game. On Sunday, match day, I managed to watch the first half-hour of Leinster against Glasgow before our team meeting at 1.30pm.

We were cutting it fine all right, and terrible traffic outside the ground meant we didn't arrive until 50 minutes before kick-off. Our "away" dressingroom was a joke, about the size of a box room in a three-bedroom semi. No kidding.

I changed in the showers with about seven or eight other players and even then the subs had to change out in the corridor. You could see the heads dropping.

So I said to them, 'no excuses. Everything had been good up to this, the trip, the hotel, the food, the training. Everything. Everybody knows that French teams don't travel well, and we've been stuck into this box in the hope that you will let it get to you. This is a mental test of us and we have to be mentally strong, and again, no excuses'. Guy Noves had been listening and suddenly chipped in: 'Il a raison, il a raison' (He's right). He continued on in this vein, saying this was today.

I was happy with the way we played generally and the way I played, but disappointed that we didn't record an away win. There were 86 minutes on the clock when we had a scrum on their line and decided to move it. Turnover, they kicked the length of the pitch and then they had a scrum on our line. We were penalised for collapsing the scrum and they kicked the penalty to earn the draw.

That's sport, but I can honestly say, after all my years in the game, the better team threw this one away. You can blame so many factors: the kickers for having an off day, the scrum, the referee for playing so much injury-time, but at the end of the day we had our chances and didn't take them. No excuses.

Because the Toulouse coaches were coaching the French Barbarians against the Wallabies in Bordeaux last night and we had no match this weekend, we were given the week off. So I hopped on a flight from Heathrow back to Dublin and was collected at the airport by Paula and driven to Dunshaughlin, where we met up with some friends in a bar there called the Sibín.

It was good for me. I hadn't a blow-out for a while and we saw a live band called High Voltage, with Pat McMahon the singer and lead guitarist. He used to play with a group called Mama's Boys and is probably the best lead guitarist in Ireland. They did loads of rock covers: Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Rory Gallagher. Sheer class.

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c'est vraiment enorme ce journal de trevor; il a vraiment un style en plus... on en apprend pas mal sur l'equipe sans langue de bois (une specialité francaise ???) avec pas mal de details sur leur differents periples.

j'ai aussi bien aimé le : "and Stade Français beating Leicester. What a dreadful game." :rolleyes: : whist

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Oui, des magazines de cul pour offrir à Servat qui est hospitalisé, et aussi de l'utilisation de son cerveau par Brennan lui-meme pour prendre la décision de se soigner.

Désolé mais la traduction prendrait beaucoup de temps, je suis flemmard ce soir.

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  • 1 month later...

chapitre 4

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-***-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.

An interview by Gerry Thornley

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Toujours aussi jovial et passionnant...

Nyanga's the new playboy of Stade Toulousain. Single, good-looking, black, 23. That says it all.
:wacko: Modifié par Rucheboy
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Jolie passage sur Jauzion, comme quoi meme eux le trouve incroyable !

Nyanga's the new playboy of Stade Toulousain. Single, good-looking, black, 23. That says it all. :lol:

Michalak et Poitrenaud ont du soucis a se faire :wacko:

Sinon bravo a Trevor pour sa récompense.

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Sur le site off :

La période des fêtes est généralement synonyme de récompenses en tous genres dans le mondu du sport. Depuis quelques semaines, plusieurs Toulousains ont été récompensés: Yannick Jauzion (meilleur joueur du Top 16 la saison passée et meilleur international), Florian Fritz (révélation du championnat), Gareth Thomas (sportif gallois de l'année) ont ainsi été tour à tour honorés par diverses instances.

Le trophée reçu la semaine passée par Trevor Brennan réjouit de façon peut-être un peu particulière l'ensemble du club. A cela deux raisons: il émane tout d'abord des fameux Texaco Sports Star, la plus ancienne et renommée des institutions de ce type en Irlande. Le jury, composé des plus fameux éditorialistes sportifs du pays, donne à l'ensemble une crédibilité incontestable. D'autre part, ce trophée, qui désigne donc Trevor comme le rugbyman irlandais de l'année, vient récompenser un joueur à la mentalité exemplaire, qui n'a jamais ménagé ses efforts pour son équuipe d'adoption. Tout le monde se souvient au Stade de la magnifique saison accomplie en 2004-2005 par Brennan, et notamment des formidables prestations lors des phases finales de Heineken Cup et Top 16.

Trevor succède au palmarès à Gordon d'Arcy et Brian O'Driscoll, mais il est le premier joueur non international à recevoir cette distinction. Un paradoxe qui n'a pas échappé à l'ensemble des média irlandais, pour lesquels l'absence du Toulousain au sein de l'équipe nationale reste une énigme. "Quelle que soit la façon dont Trevor Brennan joue à Toulouse, il ne reçoit toujours pas d'appel de la part du staff national. Brennan a pourtant remporté deux Coupe d'Europe avec le Stade, alors que les provinces irlandaises ne parviennent même pas à atteindre la finale", écrivait ainsi le "Irish Echo".

Il semblerait, d'après certains journaux, que le sélectionneur national Eddie O'Sullivan répugne à convoquer des joueurs évoluant dans des championnats étrangers, et qu'il reproche en outre à Trevor son manque de discipline. C'est oublier selon nous les grands progrès accomplis par l'intéressé dans ce domaine, et le fait qu'il n'ait pas à ce jour reçu le moindre carton cette saison abonde en ce sens.

Néanmoins, Eddie O'Sullivan a admis avoir eu le joueur au téléphone la semaine dernière, et le troisième ligne pourrait selon la rumeur recevoir un appel au moment du Tournoi des VI Nations. A suivre...

Félicitations à Trevor et bonne chance pour le tournoi des VI nations s'il est sélectionné

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Le Corbeau de l'USAP
Joli passage sur Jauzion, comme quoi meme eux le trouve incroyable !

Il y a de quoi : je ne savais qu'en plus d'être le meilleur joueur du monde, il n'était que semi-pro... Ca fait vraiment rêver ! :wacko:

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ISSUE 5

A funny old week for various reasons. We trained pretty hard on the Tuesday before the Edinburgh game, but I didn't do contact sessions as I was nursing a rib injury and the physio and the coach wanted to ease me back into things.

So I was doing circuit training with Seba, our fitness guy, and an 18-year-old called Jerome from the Espoirs. He was supposed to have an injury as well, but he hit the tackle bags I was holding like a train. We hit a lot of tackle bags while the first-team battled it out with the Espoirs in a full-on session.

After I had completed my circuit training I went back into the changing room, and within five minutes Gregory Lamboley had joined me. I asked him what was wrong and, cool as a breeze, he said: "I broke my hand."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I heard the crack," he explained.

There was nothing the team doctor could do but send Gregory off for an X-ray and he was operated on the next day. Three screws were inserted in his hand and he'll be out until the New Year. With Fabien Pelous suspended until the New Year as well, we're down to two secondrows, myself and Romain Millochlusky.

With Izzy Maka also rested at the weekend because he has a sore knee, a couple of the Espoirs were on the bench. Aidan McCullen is also serving a mandatory 20-day suspension for a red card for punching in a recent game. He had been playing number eight at the start of the season, but as he was also getting game time in the secondrow this was unlucky timing for him.

On Thursday I was running around doing some Christmas shopping and came home late in the afternoon. That night I watched The Passion of the Christ, and all I can say is that Mel Gibson went a bit over the top on the graphics.

We went to Edinburgh on Friday and after our team run we went back to the hotel for dinner. Myself and Alfie went up to the room to watch the Ulster-Saracens match. Ulster seemed to be on the back foot for much of the first 70 minutes, but Saracens lost two men to the sinbin and the game hinged on that.

Yet, again in this competition it showed how important discipline is, especially away from home.

On the morning of the match, Guy Noves came up to me and asked me if I had watched the Ravenhill match. I said I had, and he said: "You see how important discipline is. Two yellow cards and the game changed."

There isn't a game when he doesn't come up to me beforehand. Discipline, discipline, discipline.

At lunchtime on Saturday I watched the Munster game away to the Dragons, and it was good to see Munster play with a bit of width, and they were trying to offload in the tackle. Of course Ronan O'Gara kicked to the corners well, but they also used their backline. It wasn't typical Munster rugby, going to ground and rucking over it. They were trying to keep the ball alive more and offload in the tackle more.

When we went to the reception after the Edinburgh game and I looked up at the big screen for the last 20 minutes of the Leinster-Bourgoin match, I couldn't believe that Leinster were hammering Bourgoin the way they were doing.

Bourgoin were typical of French teams on their travels, but if Leinster can win the return match as well it really will show that Leinster rugby is on the up again.

We won our own game 20-13, but it was a tough match. Edinburgh played some great rugby and ran everything at us, which seemed to take some of our lads by surprise. We were 14-0 up heading towards half-time and cruising, but they picked off a try to make it 14-7. They kicked two penalties after the break and suddenly it was game on at 14-13.

We came back with a couple of three-pointers ourselves and our lads shut it out, but yesterday's video session confirmed our feeling afterwards that we did what we had to do but that there's much more in us. We still have an awful lot of work to do on areas like our defence and our driving mauls.

Not one of us had a particularly good game, but looking at the results of other French teams in Europe we've won away from home and drawn away to Wasps, along with one home win, so it's a good position to be in.

The Scots may be getting better on the pitch, but we played in front of about 3,000 in a ground with a 70,000 capacity, which seemed ridiculous. By comparison, Munster brought more people, 4,000, to Newport with them, making it like a home match.

We flew home on our private plane, an ECG 135, which holds about 50 people (and by the way, we don't own it. It was just a charter flight).

Just before we took off I got out a good book that had been given to me last summer while I was back in Ireland, though I'd only started reading it about two weeks ago, from that great writer Mr Tim Pat Coogan, called Wherever Green is Worn.

The morning of one of the Lions' Tests, I drove out to Dún Laoghaire and met Peter Cavison, a fishmonger and a good friend of Tim Pat Coogan. He gave me a few books, and I hadn't realised how many books the man had written and how much of a respected Irish historian he is.

I don't think anybody could be as knowledgeable about the Irish abroad, and in researching this book he travelled five continents talking to expatriates, or those with Irish bloodlines, about why, when and how they left Ireland. It is almost 700 pages long, and according to Tim Pat there are 70 million people in the world who are entitled to call themselves Irish, yet only five million live in Ireland.

Flicking through the pages, I noticed there was a reference to Toulouse and Bordeaux, so I turned to page 666 (sorry Tim Pat, but otherwise it would take me a year to get there).

In short, he concluded this entire study by referring to Munster's famous semi-final win (over Toulouse) in 2000 by quoting Declan Kidney: "I do believe in Irish people. We are an unbelievably good nation at turning out good sports people in all sports. Instead of being harsh with each other we just try and stress what is good about what we are doing."

After the defeat in the final to Northampton by a point, he quoted Kidney when he told his players on the Twickenham pitch afterwards: "No one could savour the delights and the heights of victory unless one had experienced the lows of defeat."

"Like Kidney," wrote Tim Pat, "I too believe in Irish people around the globe."

Here he was, after travelling around the world, from America to Japan, South Africa, France, Latin America, the Caribbean, and finishing it with two rugby matches involving Munster in the European Cup.

We're back in that competition when we host Edinburgh this Friday night, when hopefully we can improve on last week's performance. Unfortunately it's an 8.30 kick-off, by which time it will be freezing. It makes for a long, slow build-up, as we'll get together in a hotel on the Thursday. But it's part of the job.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Trevor Brennan had a mixed bag at Christmas as well as losing top spot in the league

Sometimes a bit of time off is a good thing, and the mid-season Christmas break in Toulouse for eight days was welcome, but in our case it turned out not to be so.

Personally I felt refreshed for it. We stayed at home in Toulouse, having a relatively quiet Christmas day with just the family. Poor Josh picked up a bout of gastroenteritis for two days and frankly didn't care whether Santa Claus came calling or not. Then his brother Danny caught it, then Paula and even Alfie (Gareth Thomas) picked it up when we went ski-ing in the Pyrenees. It was just one of those bugs doing the rounds.

Myself Paula and the boys, along with Gareth and his wife Gemma, went to St Lary Soulan ski-ing for five days, and ran amok for four of them. But myself and Alfie also went for a two- or three-mile run up the mountains each day. It was like a scene from Rocky IV, when Rocky prepared to fight the Russian, as we ran up the snow in a spectacular setting.

As we came back on New Year's Eve, and were due back at training on Monday, January 2nd, we took it easy that night as well and had a quiet night at home.

We had left off with a good win at home to Bourgoin on December 23rd to remain top of the table. Like I said, I felt refreshed but quite a few players were still felling tired mid-season and several still hadn't recovered from little knocks or injuries. Let's just say the training wasn't good all week in the build-up to the game at home to Bayonne last Saturday.

There were no real full sessions and the team that took the pitch hadn't had a run-out together, while a lot of guys were playing out of position.

Because of injuries to Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Frederic Michalak, our winger Vincent Clerc played at scrumhalf. As Gareth Thomas still had a sore knee, Florian Fritz played at fullback for the first time ever, and Xavier Garbajosa had to play at centre, while the Maka brothers were also ruled out, and Gregory Lamboley is still out injured for a while. So we were really thin on the ground for the first time this season.

For the first time in a long while, it seemed that much of the talk was on this week's match with Wasps. Certain guys probably could have been risked but weren't because of the game, and so quite a few of the Espoirs played. It proved quite an eventful match for me. We were 3-0 down about 15 or 20 minutes into the game when we attacked one way then went back the other, and I ran a good support line off a break by Clerc to take the offload about 15 metres out, then ran around the posts to ensure the seven-pointer. As Gareth is a good friend of mine, apparently he was mobbed by the whole replacements' bench.

Near the end, though, I managed to pick up a yellow card. From hero to villain.

We had beaten Bayonne away on the first day of the season when Richard Dourthe, who was playing fullback that day, gave me a black eye that any boxer would have been proud of with a sneaky little punch. I never thought much of it at the time and quickly forgot about it, whereupon he tried to do it again on Saturday. This time I saw it coming and managed to pull out of the way. But I couldn't believe it.

This time my reaction was also different from the opening day of the season, and I caught him with a beautiful punch. Let's just say he needed some assistance to leave the pitch.

Maybe we were a bit over-confident, and thought we'd beat Bayonne comfortably even with the under-strength team we had out, and we had our chances. But we didn't take them, they came back into the game with a penalty try from a five-metre scrum, kicked their penalties and defended as if their lives depended on it to win 19-13.

Fair play to them, and they celebrated at the end as if they had won the World Cup final, and these things can happen in sport. Look at what happened Celtic and Manchester United.

Even with the team we had out, we should have won, and we hadn't been beaten at home in over a year. It also SPAM us the first place we'd had since the start of the season. I was expecting to be slaughtered on Monday at the video session but the yellow card was overlooked. The coach didn't see much point in poring over the video and thought it was best to move on. Instead we were given the stats on the game; 28 turnovers, 20 of them by the backs and eight by the forwards. A lot of individuals were given a good bollicking, and he told us we lacked aggression and hunger, as well as accuracy.

Guy Noves also told the papers and reminded us that Biarritz had lost at home to Bayonne last season and gone on to win the French Championship. And it's amazing how much a big match can act as a miracle cure for so many different types of injuries, for by Tuesday virtually everyone was fit to train. Everyone wants to play against Wasps, a rerun of our final two seasons ago, and in front of a sell-out 37,000 capacity crowd in the football stadium.

Our coach has also picked up an award from the English journalists for services to rugby, only the third Frenchman in 20 years to win the award, after Philippe Sella and Jean-Pierre Rives. Gareth Thomas will also be travelling over to the banquet in London on Monday night as, in addition to the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year award, he has won the Memorial Award, following the likes of Jonah Lomu, Sean Fitzpatrick, Finlay Calder and Ollie Campbell. He says he's looking forward to taking Guy Noves out to all the London night spots.

We're going to be invaded by a sea of red Munster supporters who are over for their game against Castres on Friday night, and there's been one block-booking of 148 tickets from Munster fans who emailed the bar. So it should be a good weekend if all results go the right way.

I would expect us to play an awful lot better, and we'll have the Welsh fella back, along with Elissalde, Michalak and the Maka brothers, as well as Fabien Pelous, who's back from his nine-week suspension. In addition to their return, hopefully last week will also have given us a timely kick up the arse.

(Trevor Brennan's regular Heineken Cup column can be read on the ERC website, which is at www.ercrugby.com)

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NOUVEAU CHAPITRE

Toulouse lock Trevor Brennan speaks to Gerry Thornley of the Irish Times from his home in France...

Well, another good weekend of rugby, and a pretty hectic one too. On Thursday, I'd just come out of the village café after having lunch with Paula when the phone rang. The Red Army invasion had started, and it was The Claw, who'd just arrived in Toulouse with his wife Anna and a plane full of Munster heads.

He asked me if I was around to meet up and I said I had training at 4.00 and wouldn't be able to meet until about eight. After training Paula came to pick me up while the squad headed off to the hotel because our coach, Guy Noves, wanted us to focus our minds on the Wasps' game for two nights; understandably so given last week's performance against Bayonne.

Personally, two days in a hotel is not a good way to pass the time. All you do is sleep, eat, and watch videos of the opposition or bad French tv. I told Guy I had to meet a friend after training and he said "no problem. Just keep it quiet and be back in the hotel before midnight."

So we headed down to the De Danu with my wife and two friends of theirs. When I opened the door I was met by the Red Army. They'd hit the town with a bang. The Fields of Athenry was being sung by about 30 of them in the front part of the bar, and just inside the door another ten of them were playing cards with their badhrans close by.

I’d imagine it was just like any Irish pub, or at any rate a Limerick pub, on the Saturday night after a match in Thomond Park. I made my way through the crowds to the back of the bar. It took a while. I was presented with a badhran for the bar by some of the Munster Supporters’ Club, with their crest and the Toyota symbol on it. A nice touch.

Myself and Claw also posed for a few photographs and it was great to see the likes of Alan Quinlan’s mother and Donncha O’Callaghan’s mother, along with so many other familiar faces. When I got to the back of the bar I had a jug of water while the Claw and his friends tucked into a few creamy ones.

Kallidopop, the resident band, were belting out some of their tunes and it was good to catch up with the Claw and exchange old stories. He told me one story of his time in the Irish squad, when I wasn’t there, of this new fitness or weights guy.

This fella comes in to the gym one day and says: "Right Claw, time to do some weights."

"I don’t do weights," says the Claw.

"No, you have to do weights."

"No, I’m not doing them," maintains the Claw.

So this fella goes off to Brian O’Brien and says: "I have a problem with one of the players."

"Go on," says Briano.

"Claw won’t do any weights."

"He has never done weights in his life," says Briano, "and if Peter says he doesn’t want to do weights, he doesn’t do weights."

The Fanatic arrived in France on Friday via Carcassone with his good mate Corky (Kevin Corcoran). Fan Number One, and Fan Number Two. They’ve clocked up 40 flights between them in my three-and-a-half years in Toulouse. And never with their wives!

I rang the Da around lunchtime while they were in the train station in Carcassone.

"How are you?" I asked him.

"Fine, fine…. Two tickets to Toulouse please….Yeah, I’m fine… Oui, oui… How much? A rip-off…. Which train is it? What time is it leaving? Aj jaysus Corky, hurry up, we’re going to miss it…."

He’d obviously forgotten he was still on the phone to me and the background I could hear the train tooting. Ooh-ooh. Oooh-ooh. "Which one are we on?" I could hear him say, and then Corky said: "Follow the lads in red."

"Are yeez going to Toulouse? Jump in there Corky." I hung up and nearly wet myself laughing. I gave him a couple of hours to calm down and when I rang him back he was on his second bottle of wine as they were tucking into some fish and chips in the De Danu.

Last weekend, I’d said that if the matches went right it would be a good weekend, and they did, with wins for Munster, Toulouse and Leinster. And it was a great weekend. Arriving into the stadium on Saturday and coming onto the pitch the sight of the sell-out 37,000 crowd was remarkable. It was a sea of black and red for Toulouse with a couple of hundred Wasps.

But it was amazing to see there were more red Munster shirts in the crowd than there were Wasps supporters, as about 500 of them it seemed had stayed on after Munster’s brilliant win in Castres and didn’t go home until Sunday or Monday. You could see a fair few red Munster shirts in the crowd and the odd tricolour, but then it dawned on me that they were amongst the Wasps supporters, as they have three or four Irishmen in their team as well. Johnny O’Connor and Jeremy Staunton started, while Eoin Reddan and Peter Bracken were brought on from the bench. For once the tricolours weren’t for me.

The atmosphere was electric and by jaysus those Munster fans who made a weekend of it got to see two great games. The bar was as busy on Saturday and Sunday night as it was on Thursday night. We got off to a great start and after a couple of penalties Freddie Michalak made a break from his own and we went the length of the pitch to score in the corner. That’s Freddie, and the conversion made it 13-0.

After that though, it largely turned into a battle of the forwards and we had to defend our line and other parts of the pitch for long spells of the first-half and the second-half. Nearing half-time Sackey nearly got over when they went right, and then they spread the ball to the left, through Sackey and Johnny O’Connor. That left Voyce one-on-one with Trevor Brennan. A little sidestep and I missed the tackle. Hands up there, lads. He offloaded to Ibanez. 13-7. Game on.

In the second-half a few penalties were exchanged and we hung on to win 19-13.

Fellas really put their bodies on the line. It was great to see the likes of Xavier Garbajosa almost playing as an extra forward. Michalak made a great start and it was fantastic to see the way a lot of our forwards stood up to Wasps. Talking to people afterwards, including their players, everyone reckoned it was like an international for intensity and physicality.

Again though, it came at a SPAM. Finau Maka suffered three fractures in his face and will be out for three months, while Alfie aggravated a knee ligament problem. He’ll probably miss this week’s game against Llanelli but beyond that we don’t know.

Alfie had some of his family over as well and that night 12 of us went out for a meal. Later on we headed into the bar. The Wasps players tried to get into the bar but couldn’t and so the English bar across the road did a bit of business for a change. When I did a rendition of Dublin In the Rare Oul Times, the Munster fans sang along. For a change it was the wife dragging me out of the pub at the end of the night but the Munster lads didn’t let up. If I was a Munster player I’d be so proud of them. There wasn’t a bit of trouble in the bar or in Toulouse all weekend.

Back into training on Monday, and Guy Noves wasted no time telling us that while we have qualified, we are nowhere near sure of a home quarter-final, and for that to happen we need to beat Llanelli. We were reminded how important this is to the club.

Last Wednesday I signed a contract to the end of the 2007 World Cup. I’m delighted that I’ll be having a fifth season at one of the best clubs in Europe. Not bad, eh? And we need that home quarter-final for the club to afford my massive pay increase.

(In an interview with Gerry Thornley)

ercrugby.co.uk

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Que veut dire the claw? je pense que c'est un surnom qu'il donne à peter Clohessy...

Sinon, quel plaisir de lire ce témoignage.

COME ON TREVOR!

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The Red Army invasion had started

Last weekend, I’d said that if the matches went right it would be a good weekend, and they did, with wins for Munster, Toulouse and Leinster.

It was a sea of black and red for Toulouse with a couple of hundred Wasps.

But it was amazing to see there were more red Munster shirts in the crowd than there were Wasps supporters, as about 500 of them it seemed had stayed on after Munster’s brilliant win in Castres and didn’t go home until Sunday or Monday. You could see a fair few red Munster shirts in the crowd and the odd tricolour

The atmosphere was electric and by jaysus those Munster fans who made a weekend of it got to see two great games. The bar was as busy on Saturday and Sunday night as it was on Thursday night.

When I did a rendition of Dublin In the Rare Oul Times, the Munster fans sang along. For a change it was the wife dragging me out of the pub at the end of the night but the Munster lads didn’t let up.

If I was a Munster player I’d be so proud of them.

Last Wednesday I signed a contract to the end of the 2007 World Cup. I’m delighted that I’ll be having a fifth season at one of the best clubs in Europe. Not bad, eh? And we need that home quarter-final for the club to afford my massive pay increase.

non non, Trevor n'aime pas les supporters du Munster! B):(

dire que le de danu était plein tout le week-end, c'est limite en dessous de la réalité! :blink: :blink:

voilà, il le dit lui même: il a ressigné jusqu'à 2007 B)

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voilà, il le dit lui même: il a ressigné jusqu'à 2007

avec une belle augmentation de salaire ...

"my massive pay increase"

c'est pas un peu ironique? B)

maintenant, qu'il fut augmenté, franchement, on s'en fout un peu, non?

perso, c'est le terrain qui compte! B)

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Que veut dire the claw? je pense que c'est un surnom qu'il donne à peter Clohessy...

Sinon, quel plaisir de lire ce témoignage.

COME ON TREVOR!

Oui c'est le surnom "officiel" de Clohessy

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Jeu de mot entre Clohessy et Claw: La pince. Rapport a plaquage.

Il a un pub a Limerick.

Qui s’appelle le “sin bin”. Castres jouant souvent munster en poule, le castrais ont leur habitude.

J’ai meme oui dire que Reggiardo, pilier argentin de son etat aurait pisse sur le comptoir de ce pub.

Belle image de marque pour le co.

Mais bon on s’ecarte su sujet.

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Jeu de mot entre Clohessy et Claw: La pince. Rapport a plaquage.

Il a un pub a Limerick.

Qui s’appelle le “sin bin”. Castres jouant souvent munster en poule, le castrais ont leur habitude.

J’ai meme oui dire que Reggiardo, pilier argentin de son etat aurait pisse sur le comptoir de ce pub.

Belle image de marque pour le co.

Mais bon on s’ecarte su sujet.

le pub aurait dû prendre Collazo comme videur... mdr

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A night of mischief after pranks

Trevor Brennan remembers his recent trip to Wales and some of the antics that went on, and looks forward to facing Leinster in the European Cup

Came into training yesterday and there was pandemonium. The boys were hopping mad, telling stories of things that had happened during the night. Over in the corner of the dressing-room, Freddie Michalak looked shattered but was laughing away to himself all the same. He'd had a long night . . .

It all goes back to our trip to Llanelli last weekend. On arrival in Cardiff airport, one of the boys had got a hold of Freddie's bag and emptied the contents on to the carousel. He wasn't happy about that.

Before the match, some of the boys put deep heat in Freddie's boots and he had to go searching around for another pair. He was even less amused about that. Finally, when we arrived back in Blagnac airport on Saturday night, his bag had been nicked and reported as missing. By now, Freddie was fairly pissed off.

The lads feared there might be serious repercussions, but figured they might be safe as he wouldn't know who to blame. Freddie narrowed it down to four possible culprits: Yannick Jauzion, Yannick Bru, Xavier Garbajosa and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde.

A warning came on Monday evening at training while we were doing some scrummaging. Freddie has a mate in Domino's, and suddenly there was a motorcycle delivery man driving across the pitch delivering three pepperoni pizzas in the name of our forwards' coach, Serge Lairle, and a bill for €35.

Nobody paid him, but we had to have a slice of pizza before settling down to do some more scrums.

Freddie's dad is a builder, so Freddie headed off into the night - late into Monday night - in his car; his boot filled up with ready-made cement, concrete bricks and bags of dirt and rubble. He started off at about 2am at Garba's house and began building a wall. He'd reached about two layers of bricks, but because it was a very foggy night, he began to think he had the wrong house and instead went next door where he built a five-foot wall.  

Garba came out yesterday morning and saw an unfinished two-foot wall outside his front door, but then saw the trail of footprints through the garden to his neighbour's house leading all the way to a five-foot wall in front of his neighbour's door. He said nothing and quickly hopped in the car to go training.

Next, Freddie had driven to Bru's house and painted "Goby" - Yannick's nickname - in big writing all across the front wall of his house. He then drove on to Jauzion's house and yanked up Jauzion's car, putting four cement blocks underneath. He drove on to Elissalde's house and covered his car in muck and rubble.

Freddie had been a busy boy and looked whacked yesterday, but he looked happy too. "Listen lads," he said to them, "I'm a single lad with no kids and no responsibilities. Do what you like, but I'll always get you back."  

This one could run.

Well, we duly secured our home quarter-final. There was only one change to the starting team last Saturday against Llanelli; with Romain Millo-Chluskey coming into the secondrow for my good self.

I couldn't train all week due to a stamping on my leg against Wasps. Guy Noves named the team on Wednesday and called me aside afterwards and asked me if I thought I'd be available to travel over on Friday, and, if I had to, would I be able to do a job? I said oui to both questions. Pas de problem.

I wasn't entirely sure in my own mind, but I didn't want to let the team down.

We headed off early on Friday, and when the coach drove up to our hotel in Llanelli, the Best Western, Alfie said: "Oh no." After a while, I realised what he meant. It was more like the Worst Western in Wales.

Lunch in the function room was rock-hard pasta with some meat and a dessert which no one could figure but which Alfie told us was semolina. Later on that night, after our team run in Stradey Park, it was back to our Best Western restaurant for dinner.

The room was like something from the 1920s, mirror balls and cobwebs everywhere. More rock-hard pasta and chicken. The French boys didn't touch it.

After the meal, we sat down and watched the Clermont Auvergne-Leicester match, with updates of Stade Francais and the Ospreys, but both games were pretty much over by half-time so I headed off to my room.

How do I describe my room? If you've ever seen Only Fools and Horses, and the apartment Del Boy and the grandfather share, it would give you a good idea. It even had a small bar counter in the corner, with boxes and bits and pieces piled up in another corner.

The curtains had big circles in them and looked like something from the 1950s. It wasn't exactly 21st century. Myself and Alfie were looking at TV and just laughing at ourselves and the whole scene.

On the morning of the match, Noves reminded us that we hadn't secured a home quarter-final yet and to do so we'd have to win and probably get a bonus point as well. As it was a 1pm kick-off, we got up for a walk and a stretch at 8.30. Breakfast was at 7.0, but no one got up for that.

Lunch was at 9.15. It reminded me of a scene from D'Unbelievables when they had the dinner at 8.30 "to get a good run at the day". No change in the food. More hard pasta and some kind of meat - beef, pork, whatever - and no one could figure out what it was. Most of the boys just had some fruit and yoghurt, and I had six bananas as my pre-match lunch at 9.15.

I'd have to say it was the worst hotel I've every stayed in throughout my career as a rugby player. I was getting worried, too, about the boys' mental state. I could hear a few of them giving out about the food, and the last thing you'd want to do is give French boys an excuse. And let's just say there were an awful lot of excuses.

So I launched into my usual speech before an away game. Pas d'excuses au jour d'hui. Great hotel, great food? The guys were just laughing at me, and inside I was thinking for once I agreed with them.

Watching the match from the sidelines, it was like watching the Baabaas against the All Blacks in Cardiff in 1973. There were tries from the first minute to the last. It was as if the two sides had got together in the dressing-room and decided: "Let's put on a show for the public."

Warming up or stretching in the in-goal area during the match, it was funny to hear the Welsh accents shouting out: "How's the bar going Trev?", or "How's Paula and the kids?" The other six subs were looking at me and wondering what was going on, and for once all I could do was smile and say nothing.

I enjoyed watching the game, and felt the lads were in control, that at any stage they could move up the gears, but then we were torn to bits by Noves in Monday's video session over our defence, even though he congratulated us on getting a home quarter-final.

We have two free weekends without a game, but although we'll be ticking over with French championship matches between now and the quarter-final, and will get the boys back for five or six days, it's tough for the coaches. It's the same for Leinster of course.

Watching Munster and Leinster win over the weekend, I would have to say they were two of the best Irish performances in the 10 years of the European Cup, and it's great that Munster have produced some good, quick, young and home-grown backs.

On the way back, and up until the Bath-Leinster match, the boys had mentioned other teams such as Sale as potential opponents, but no one had mentioned Leinster. A few of us were in the bar watching the game, and when Sky flashed up the quarter-final pairings with Toulouse v Leinster, I nearly choked on my bacon and sausage.

I still stay in regular contact with a lot of the boys and I suppose, after avoiding them for three seasons here, it was bound to happen eventually. Whatever happens, it will be a great weekend.

Obviously the phone hasn't stopped, with inquiries about planes, hotels, training, taxis, restaurants, bars, shops etc. My message box is full and the mobile is liable to explode.

For all those wanting to make contact, could I ask that they please stop ringing me. Just contact Collette Buckley at www.dedanu.com and she'll genuinely do her best to help you.

Je vous traduirai ça pour les non anglophones... Car là, c'est quand même FORMIDABLE !

:P

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