Since it is well known that opposites attract, Toulon is the only team in the Top 14 to have two Breton players (apart from Vannes, of course) in its squad. In this case Gaël Dréan and Corentin Mézou, two boys recruited from the other side of France to join the RCT training center.
TOP 14. Salesi Rayasi, the Kiwi that Brittany (already) loves like kouign-amannAnd two big potentials who ultimately “match” a lot with the pros. If the former Rennes player Dréan has been making his way for 2 years now in the first group, Mézou had his first appearance in the Top 14 at the start of the season, on the pitch in Paris. For a victory at Jean-Bouin (10 to 14) after a tough battle under the fleet. Only Toulon's 2nd away in 2024.
Greatest player in the Toulon squad
Mezou? It is therefore a giant of 2m04, fed in Breton breeding but which still needs to gain in physicality (114kg). “Coco needs to meet strong players who hit hard. Once again, when you are young, you have potential, but he needs to thicken up physically, to play matches in the Top 14 to get up to the level, to the intensity.“, said his coach Sergio Parisse to Var-Matin after his premiere.
TOP 14. The RCT rocket Joé Quere-Karaba soon with France 7 in the relay of the Olympic champions?But “Coco” has time, too. At only 19 years old, the U20 world vice-champion learns on a daily basis alongside Charles Ollivon and others, at the bedside of the tallest player in the Toulon squad and who have already integrated him well. “It was his first, and certainly not his last. Coco is a boy I believe in a lot. He has qualities and potential.“
Indeed, the great Mézou has made 4 tenures since then. Arriving in Toulon on the tips of his big feet (he wears size 50) last year to replace one of the CDF's great hopes at the post (Emilio Orsoni, 2m04 for 130kg), forced to stop rugby prematurely, he is therefore gaining ground more quickly than imagined, with the grown-ups.
Even if he readily admitted to RCTPlay that the collisions and the fight had nothing to do with what he experienced in the U20s. But this big shy man struggles with his aerial and combative qualities, in particular.
Toulon is far from everything, but it's such a wonderful adventure… So when I miss home, I go back for the weekend, I fill the suitcases with little dishes and it gives me a taste of Brittany for a few days .” (Var-Matin)
Not the most gifted of his generation, his profile and his mentality nevertheless appeal wherever he goes. And the one who dreamed of becoming a farmer at a younger age can now envisage a great career in the Top 14, and perhaps not one day, he who is still growing (he would have gained 1 cm this summer).
TRANSFER. Bundee Aki tracked by Toulon! A signing that could shake up the Top 14In Toulon, in this club where he had “instinctively wanted to come“. More than 1,300 km from home, of course. But often thinking of the good little dishes that his mother prepared for him, in Plougastel. Because even giants keep their childish soul.
