Brendan Gallagher: Matt Giteau counts his blessings amid sun, sea and rugby stars

There was a fascinating cameo for people watchers at the end of Toulon‘s mighty win over Leinster at Stade Felix Mayol the other Sunday. Following the final whistle Toulon’s players, after a collective embrace, charged off every whichway to take well deserved plaudits from the crowd and hook up with family for the start of an adhoc lap of honour and walkabout.
Matt Giteau was probably tempted to join them, but there were some old fashioned niceties to observe first like forming a tunnel and clapping Leinster off. Giteau, with enviable panache, put his thumb and forefinger in his mouth and produced an earpiercing whistle and waved all the Toulon players urgently over to the tunnel. They couldn’t have responded with more alacrity if a Sergeant Major had summoned them personally.
With Jonny Wilkinson’s career rapidly drawing to a close Giteau is becoming the dominant force at the world’s most talked-about rugby club. Giteau is now both the go-to player and personality at Stade Felix Mayol having made a stunning success of a move to France that started in unpromising circumstances after he was unaccountably omitted from the Wallabies 2011 World Cup squad. From that crushing nadir Giteau, still only 31, has now reached a point where he is arguably playing the the best rugby of his life and is more settled than at any stage of his stellar career.
Almost without noticing he has already logged up 80 appearances with Toulon, won a Heineken Cup, reached two French Cup finals and has the match of all club matches on the near horizon with Toulon meeting Munster in the Heineken Cup at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille later this month. It would be difficult to envisage a bigger clash outside of the Test arena.
Giteau swims in the Mediterranean every morning unless he’s on the road with Toulon and often posts a picture to prove it in the winter months. On rare days off he nudges his way gently around Province visiting the sites and improving his French. To most eyes he could step back into the Australia squad tomorrow and many still fume on his behalf but he hasn’t missed a second’s sleep over his departure from the international scene.
“Australia would have to be incredibly stupid to come back to me,” insists Giteau. “There are so many good Australian backs around and coming through, it really is their time now not mine. Look, I’m an Aussie patriot and if some unimaginable run of injuries hit them of course I would answer the call, but it can never happen really.
“You have to be with an Australian franchise to qualify and I am wonderfully happy here in the south of France.
“I settled so quickly here that already I feel three or four steps removed from the Test scene. I’ve surprised myself. When I watch Australia on the TV I watch as a spectator these days and not somebody who still thinks he should be involved and is bitter about that.

“Emotionally I am not part of that group any more, I am just a proud Aussie who supports them to the hilt and an ex- player who is pretty encouraged by the way things are beginning to turn around under the new regime.  They have blooded some newish players and others are stepping up as they mature as Test players.
“Settling so quickly in Toulon and the lifestyle, and being so happy here, has been a big part of being able to let go.  I’ve grown to realise in the last few years that I need to be by the sea to be truly content and the Riviera offers everything in that respect. When I arrived I committed to swimming in the sea year round and I’ve kept to that. It can be a bit brisk in midwinter but I do a quick 100 metres out and back on mornings like that. The other nine months of the year it’s heaven.
“The rugby is everything I hoped for and more and I’m more excited than ever at training. With so many class players and playing styles from different countries – eight or nine isn’ it? – there is that fresh feeling of finding new things to learn and that’s brilliant at my age. Jonny sets the benchmark in dedication and is also incredibly skilful while Freddie Michalak is a magician and has taught an old dog a few new tricks. It’s a bit more relaxed than Oz, you don’t get fined if you are ten minutes late for training, you just finish ten minutes later. The work always gets done.
“Jonny was fantastic in welcoming me to the club back at the end of 2011. I might have been an experienced Test player but I was pretty nervous. Coming in under his wing so to speak, was easy though. Jonny had embraced the club and city totally and his example is a great one to follow. I have given it 100 per cent from day one and the result has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.”
There must be something restorative in the Toulon air because a large number of big name players seem to rediscover their mojoh down there. Wilkinson, both Armitages, Nick Kennedy, and Andrew Sheridan between injuries have all produced some of the best rugby of their careers while with Toulon. And it had to be more than money because none of them were exactly rugby paupers beforehand. There is a soul to the Toulon club and those who represent it that has nothing to do with Mourad Boudjellal’s deep pockets.

“The size of your pay-cheque has very little bearing on whether you are a successful team and enjoying yourself,” continues Giteau. “You have to make that happen yourself. Long term you will never achieve anything if you play just for money. When I look around the Toulon dressing room I see a lot of pretty big names energised like 18-year-olds, excited by the passion of this rugby club and their supporters and inspired by the skills and talent of some of their teammates.
“And believe me you bond pretty quickly when you are playing T14 rugby every week for nine months. It’s sink or swim, it’s tough and challenging. Unlike Australia we try and avoid planes and travel by bus a lot which makes for some pretty long road trips.  But they are part of the scene. The best bonding session I can ever remember was an away match at Mont de Marsan which ended with a ten-hour bus drive back to Toulon through the night, arriving home about 8am just in time for breakfast. Experiences like that make you into a pretty tightknit group
“This is a community-based club and we love getting out there and meeting everybody – we have open training sessions at smaller clubs around Toulon and we play games at Nice and Marseilles as well as Felix Mayol. We have autograph signing sessions after training and when you are out in town it’s a pleasure to pull over and pass the time of day with the fans and sign some more.
“The Toulon ‘bus walk’ we do before home matches – from our bus to the changing room  – is amazing and took my breath away the first time I experienced it and it still gets the heart thumping every time. There will be supporters – grown men and women – in tears cheering you on and reaching out to encourage you. It certainly reminds you of what’s at stake and the need to perform and deliver. There is nothing like that in Australia or anywhere else for that matter. I love it here.”