JOE El-Abd, England‘s new defence coach, revealed his time with Toulon‘s Galacticos helped him realise you need more than talent and money to guarantee success.
The former flanker was at Toulon from 2009 to 2012, leaving just before Jonny Wilkinson inspired them to three Champions Cup wins on the spin.
Apart from Wilkinson, players such as Bakkies Botha, George Smith, Tana Umaga and Joe van Niekerk were on the roster as president Mourad Boudjellal splashed the cash to attract the world’s biggest names.
El-Abd also played and coached at Oyonnax and had a stint on the staff at Castres – with time at those two showing him the other side of the coin.
But his period at Toulon showed him there was more to success than chucking money around and he paid attention in his other French lessons around the country.
French lessons inspire El-Abd
The 44-year-old said: “In Toulon we had these players, Jonny Wilkinson, Bakkies Botha, Carl Hayman, I could go on… and what you realise is having great talent is something really important but it’s the cohesion that is the difference and how people connect as individuals to create a team. That was something that helped form me. “When I was moving from Toulon to Oyonnax, I asked the French players ‘what can you tell me about it?’ and they said, ‘where is it, is it in France?’. That is Oyonnax, it’s tiny, there are 20,000 people there, it shouldn’t really exist in the rugby landscape as it does.
“We managed to go up for the first ever time to the Top 14, stay up, then qualify for the end of season playoffs and lose by a point to Toulouse. For a little town like that, that experience helps you. You haven’t got all the money for the bells and whistles.
“Then moving over to Castres, as a defence coach and forwards coach, we were a small coaching unit, in a small town, that has means to compete at the highest level.
“That has forged me as well and led me to be the coach I am today. I’m proud of that journey, not just Toulon, that’s what everyone wants to talk about, but every stage along the way.”
El-Abd had his first three days with the England team at a Twickenham camp last week and he will be in Girona with Steve Borthwick‘s squad from October 21 ahead of the autumn Tests.
In between he headed back to France, where he is director of rugby at Oyonnax until the end of the season, to supervise his club’s ProD2 clash with Colomiers on Friday.
And El-Abd insists the current job-share will benefit England because he is keeping his coaching hand in over the Channel where his wife and three children will continue to live.
He added: “For this season until the end of the season, when there’s an England camp, for this three days or for the autumn series, I will be with England 100 per cent. When we’re not in camp, I’ll be back in with Oyonnax. Am I good at compartmentalising? We’re going to find out.
“I’ve juggled enough things in my lifetime to know that can work and that there are huge positives until the end of this season. When you’re not in camp, what are you not doing? You’re not coaching. I’m going to be coaching, which is a real positive we can have. We need to work on our coaching craft. I’ll be in camp with England when we are all together. When I am not, I’ll be back in Oyonnax.”
