"Work hard to progress and catch up with the teams ahead of us": Pierre Mignoni takes stock of the RCT's 2024-2025 season

The time has come for the traditional end-of-season review! Five days after the defeat against Bordeaux in the Top 14 semi-final, which marked the end of the season for Rugby Club Toulon, Pierre Mignoni appeared before the press late yesterday morning.

And first of all, the RCT rugby director started with a numerical assessment (read opposite), which he considers "an improvement compared to previous seasons."

"We're going to watch the final on TV."

"There are some very positive things, but we were hoping to go further. When you finish third in the championship, you always have the ambition to go all the way. Unfortunately, this year, it's not for us, and we're going to watch the final on TV... Nevertheless, the results are rather positive ."

Asked what separates his Toulon from Toulouse and Bordeaux today, "Pierrot", lucid, recognized that the two Top 14 finalists were still well ahead.

" Like the rankings, we're behind these two clubs. So we're watching them, but the important thing is to look at ourselves. What can we improve in our operations? The attack, the defense obviously, but not only that. I'm also talking about the way the club operates. We're seeing progress at Toulon, especially among the young players. That's important, it means there's a dynamic building up. Now we have to nurture it, accelerate it, and make up for lost time. But we're on the right track for the years to come ."

And to try to make up for the delay it has on UBB and Stade Toulousain, Pierre Mignoni affirms that his team will have to " take a mental step ."

A progression that will be built by continuing to play decisive matches as it was able to do against Saracens and Toulouse in the Champions Cup, but also against Castres or Bordeaux in the Top 14.

"It shows how much work we still have to do."

" We need to play more matches like this. Before this season, we only had the Challenge Cup final in 2023 and the play-off against La Rochelle in 2024. So we've played several this season, which will increase our shared experience. And besides, this time, we didn't mess up in the play-off, which shows progress. Except that then, we didn't respond in the semi-finals. That shows how much work we still have to do. "

"We must do better"

Proud to have brought Toulon back to the semi-finals, but unsatisfied that the season had ended a week too early for his liking, Pierre Mignoni then turned to the future.

" We always want to go faster, because we've only won one trophy in three years. But we've come a long way. This year was a good performance, but we shouldn't be satisfied. I'm not negative about the results, but we can and must do better. We're going to work hard to continue to progress and catch up with the teams ahead of us. This will also involve recruiting. But don't imagine that we're going to go looking for players from all over the world. That's over, so we're going to build with our means, and with the reality of the current market. Then we have to have a little humility. 2013-2015 is over, so the club has to build differently. The RCT's economic model is on borrowed time today, so we have to work in depth, with our young people ."

No time to waste for Pierre Mignoni who, barely having finished the 2024-2025 season (and even before going on holiday for a few days), has ensured that the 2025-2026 season is (already) on the best possible track.

To launch his end-of-season review, Pierre Mignoni first wanted to present a numerical summary of RCT's performance in the Top 14. And to start with the positive: " We take seven offensive bonuses, all at home, it's much better than last year [5], and that means we were more offensive. Away from home it's not as good, because we won three matches and we "only" take five defensive bonuses... And at the same time, we are fourth in the away team rankings ."

"We didn't finish third for nothing."

And then he goes on to discuss the more specific figures for his team's performance during the regular season.

" We have the third best attack in terms of tries scored [88, compared to 74 last season], the fourth best defense in terms of tries [68] and the second best defense in terms of points conceded [595]. All this proves that we don't finish third for nothing. Having said all that, we would like to improve in specific areas. For example, in terms of successful tackles, we are only ninth. I want us to be more solid on the man, more effective. "

And to continue on the conquest: " We are first in the scrum, but only seventh in lineouts. We must improve. Another paradox: we are the third team to have scored the most tries, but in terms of meters covered and crossings, we are thirteenth and tenth. This means that we kick the ball a lot, so I would like us to find a balance. We are thinking about all this with the staff. "