Gerry Thornleyoffers an insight into the culture and priorities of the Heineken Cup's newest recruit
AS THE only new club in this season's competition, Montauban - also known as USMTG (Union Sportive Montauban Tarn Garonne) - become the 55th team to play in the Heineken Cup this evening, and they've certainly been pitched in at the deep end. Un baptême du feu, as Midi Olympique described their European debut.
It is an extraordinary climb for the small-town club located in Tarn-et-Garonne, about 50km up the A62 north of Toulouse, given they were a second division club this time three seasons ago.
This is only their eighth season in the top flight of French rugby, although, unlike Clermont Auvergne (whom they host next week), Montauban did win one French Championship, back in 1967. But the days of small-town clubs winning the French title are gone, and their budget of €9.5 million is the third-lowest in the Top 14, ahead of Dax and Mont-de-Marsan and just below Bourgoin.
They qualified for the Heineken Cup by dint of finishing seventh last season when pipping Montpellier on the last day. The green-and-black-clad team did so with a record of 13 wins and 13 defeats, thanks in the main to a dozen victories and only one loss at their intimate home ground of Stade Saipac. So the comparisons with Bourgoin become more valid, and Montauban's away form of 12 defeats in 13 games last season has continued unabated with another three defeats from three on the road this season.
Although the club and the vast majority of their players are heading into uncharted territory, their head coach Laurent Travers won a Heineken Cup medal with Brive in 1997.
Speaking after the pool draw he could scarcely conceal his excitement about their Euro bow.
"This is it for us - we have dreamed of the Heineken Cup for so long and now we have it. And what a pool! It is going to be enormously difficult for us but what an amazing opportunity for our players to experience the highest level of club rugby and to line up against teams who are almost totally made up of international players. This can only continue the evolution of our club. Fabulous!"
By the start of the season though, neither Travers nor the Montauban backs coach, Laurent Labit, was denying that the combined demands of the Top 14 and the Heineken Cup were going to place a huge strain on their playing resources. "Instead of 26 top-level matches in the Top 14, with the European Cup we'll have to play 32 games," warned Labit, "and that will change everything regarding effective management. We can't hide from that; we've put ourselves in danger."
Travers added: "We can very easily find ourselves like Toulouse RFC, which contested the Champions League last season and then nearly went down. Europe will allow us to supplement our cap. But teams competing in the Heineken Cup use 47 or 48 players, while we have just 37 plus three espoirs.
"So we have to be very careful, we can't have any other objective than to remain in the elite (Top 14)."
Pierre Belloc, the club's vice-president, warned: "We remain a family club. One of the few in professional rugby where the amateurs and the professionals are close."
As well as himself, Belloc points out, there are only two full-time employees - Yannick, an accountant, and Aurélie, a secretary - to take care of all the club's administrative work.
There was some upheaval in the club during the summer when Daniel Harvis succeeded Patrick Bardot as president. This was in part provoked by the financial pressures of having to redevelop one stand, as a result of which Montauban lost time and money in their recruitment drive.
That said, they strengthened the squad during the close-season with a clutch of players from the Pro D2 world they know so well, as well as captures such as the Fijian flyer Vilimoni Delasau from Clermont, fullback Julien Laharrague from Sale and the Maori winger Shannon Paku, from the Hurricanes.
Four defeats in their first seven games have left them 10th in the Top 14 and may further underline their domestic priorities.
"Europe is a reconnaissance," says Travers. "The players will be able to make progress technically and tactically, gaining experience and continuing their development, while hoping not to stumble, and recognise the difficulties of the championship."
