Coming on eight minutes from the end of the tough duel against Castres, the Var fly-half converted a corner to allow his team to win on the gong (30-28). After the match, his teammates and his coach thanked him.
Some will say that he only did his “job”. Others repeat that it is sometimes hard to go to work. And the image of Paolo Garbisi, at the end of this game, is worth a thousand words: the Italian, who had several failures in the goal exercise, went to lift his partner off the ground after just three whistles. Like a relief. Unanimous. Intense.
Before this Homeric transformationToulon got into a very bad situation in this game. Mignoni’s gang had only led for eight minutes in the first half, and were only twenty seconds ahead in the second. A good twenty seconds, to the great delight of the Toulon manager. “Before he came in, I told him one very simple thing: when you see the score, this is what you like and this is what you want. You’re going to have a great opportunity (to make the team win, Editor’s note). I knew he was going to do it, on this one opportunity. I told him one thing: ‘Bravo’.” In the rest of his speech, the fiery manager admitted, as usual, that he had not “watched” the decisive shot, preferring to listen to the noise of the crowd.
The person concerned supported his tribute: “Today, it’s thanks to Enzo. It’s not thanks to me. Besides, I wouldn’t have blamed him if he had missed the target. With goal scorers, you have to have a lot of restraint. It’s like a goal scorer on a penalty in football. Today, it’s him who took over, next time it will be someone else like Paolo (Garbisi), Dan (Biggar) or Baptiste (Serin). It’s a very hard job, but he needed it, it will give him a lot of confidence.” And this cursor has been on the decline. The ex-Briviste saw his playing time melt like snow in the sun, with the arrivals of Garbisi and Biggar over the course of last season.
Hervé had already helped Toulon win in preseason
More down to earth than Mignoni, Esteban Abadie, who spent many seasons working alongside the fly-half in Corrèze, saw it with his own eyes. “I’m happy for him. He plays in a position with a lot of responsibility. It’s not always easy for him, because he didn’t have a lot of playing time last season. He had his ups and downs. Today, I’m happy, because he’s a guy who deserves it. He made the team win. Before the kick, I didn’t look at him. I left him in his routine, I know he’s a guy who is good in this situation. I didn’t want to add extra pressure on him.” The third line even added a personal anecdote: “He needs affection, he needs support. When he is supported, he can do wonderful things. Today, we say thank you.” Former captain of the ship, Teddy Baubigny was the first to thank the scorer on the pitch, pointing at him. “At the time, we were very happy. We were jubilant, even though there were 30 seconds left to play. We were dependent on him, I just told him: ‘I’m proud of you.’ It was very hard, but we didn’t expect anything less. I didn’t watch anything, but I just listened to the noise of the stadium. He did it in preseason against Clermont, to win. He’s doing it again. I’m happy for this guy, because he works hard. He didn’t have an easy time last year, and today, he was good in his routine. He responded to this personal challenge.”
In the midst of discovering his partner, the English international Lewis Ludlam also took his hat off: “He’s a great goalscorer, a great goalscorer! He’s a guy who trains hard for these kinds of moments, all week on the training pitch. Well done!” Fair play, Louis Le Brun rang the bell with class: “I would have liked mine to be the last (smile). I congratulate him, because it is not easy to put on. We have won several times like this, notably against Racing 92, or even last year… This time, it was not our day.” Yes, it was indeed the afternoon of Toulon and especially of Enzo Hervé.
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