Saturday afternoon at Stade Mayol is already a special experience, before you bear witness to the next remarkable feat in Ma’a Nonu’s career.
If the ground plonked by the harbour on the Var region’s south coast is not on your rugby-watching bucket list then add it immediately. The beaches at Mourillon are bathed in October’s beating sunshine, as yachts clink away in the marina by the port where in 1815 the fictional Jean Valjean left prison to begin his parole in Les Misérables, and the very real Admiral Horatio Nelson blockaded the city ten years before.
It cost me and a friend €15 (about £13) to sit behind the goal, and after we had watched the famous Pilou Pilou war cry, and a physical Toulon best Pau 33-17, we were drinking a Corsican pression by the Mediterranean within five minutes of leaving the ground. You do wonder what we are doing sometimes in the Gallagher Prem, charging £100 or more to sit in an uncovered stand during Storm Amy.
The Toulon-Pau game was notable for two things; first the comeback of Charles Ollivon, the French open-side/Roman god-of-war lookalike, who had last played in January when he tore the cruciate ligaments in his knee. Many Toulonnais, dressed in black and red, spilt out of the bars, into the plastic seats set on to concrete slabs at the Mayol, wearing masks with Ollivon’s face on them to celebrate the return of their hero.
Nonu continues to break his own records in the Top 14
AFP
If Ollivon was their recovering Lazarus then Nonu is Methuselah, not only now the oldest player ever to play in the Top 14, at 43, but also the grand championship’s most senior scorer.
Deon Fourie, the 39-year-old Springbok hooker/flanker, is his closest active veteran in the world’s top leagues and, according to the rugby statistician Stuart Farmer, you have to go back to 2001 to find an older top-flight French player still trucking. The one-cap flanker Christian Béguerie was still playing for Agen then, aged 45, four years before the first edition of the Top 14, when it was known as the clunkier Championnat de France de rugby à XV.
But in the modern elite game, Nonu is in uncharted waters. On Saturday, the New Zealander broke his Top 14 oldest-scorer record … which he had set the week before when he crossed in a 35-32 defeat by Bayonne. It happened right in front of us. On as a second-half substitute, Nonu slunk in the centres, his dreadlocks lolloping behind him, as Pau forced a Toulon maul to crab across the face of the posts, defending their line.
Then, when the ball shot out to him, Nonu punched inside off his right foot, which floored Pau’s blind-side flanker, Sacha Zegueur, who is 17 years his junior, to power over for Toulon’s fifth and final try. You do not see many middle-aged dads doing that.
Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager.
Enable cookiesAllow cookies once
Nonu’s latest try in the world’s toughest league, at 43 years and 136 days old, came three weeks shy of the ten-year anniversary of his Test retirement. He bowed out of the All Blacks team alongside Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Conrad Smith, Keven Mealamu and Tony Woodcock on Halloween 2015 at Twickenham, having won his second consecutive World Cup, beating Australia 34-17, and his 103rd cap. And here he is still dominating.
Smith chuckles about his old mate’s latest achievement. “You can’t play Top 14 by just turning up trying to collect paycheques, that’s proper rugby,” he says. “The fact that he’s at the top of his game at his age is bloody impressive.”
There are so many hilariously mind-boggling statistics relating to Nonu. In the Toulon side last Saturday were two 21-year-olds — Joé Quere Karaba and Mathis Ferté — who were both born after his Test debut, England’s famous 15-13 win in Wellington on June 14, 2003. Then consider that Kyle Sinckler, the 32-year-old English tight-head at Toulon, made his Test debut the year after Nonu retired; since then he has won 68 England caps, been to two World Cups and been on two British & Irish Lions tours.
Nonu made his New Zealand debut against England 22 years ago
GETTY
Sinckler is in awe of Nonu, who rejoined Toulon for a second stint from the American Major League Rugby side San Diego Legion in February as a “medical joker” signing to cover injuries.
“It’s like the king has returned,” Sinckler says of Nonu, who was at Toulon first between 2015 and 2021. “Sometimes in France the schedule can be a bit crazy, but I try to get in at 7am, or just after, to be ready for whatever is thrown at us from 8am.
“I’ll do an hour of treatments, sauna and stretching but he will have already been in since 6am. He will have done an ice-bath, sauna, pool work, would have had his massage treatment and then will be firing up his muscles, or doing his maintenance work and core exercises in the gym for two hours.
Nonu retired from international rugby alongside Carter and McCaw after the All Blacks won the 2015 World Cup
AFP
“I did a core session with him once last season — I have abs underneath my stomach somewhere — but honestly I was still hurting after three days going, ‘Bro, this is ridiculous!’ ”
One player Nonu mentors is Oliver Cowie, 20. Born and raised in France to English parents, he is the club’s next hot prospect in the back line and taking invaluable lessons from one of the world’s greats. Sinckler, who worked closely with the Welsh legend Adam Jones at Harlequins, bemoans how the priceless experiences of these veterans has been lost from the Prem.
“That’s the sad thing about the game in England, as with the financial situation after Covid some of the statesmen have had to be let go as you can’t keep them all in your budget,” the prop says.
“Until I had that daily interaction with Adam Jones I didn’t truly get it. Just because you’re paid to be a professional doesn’t mean you’re truly professional. It is an honour and a privilege to work with someone like that.
Sinckler is in awe of his Toulon team-mate
PANORAMIC
“There will be times that you come in not feeling great and you see him working and you think, ‘If Ma’a’s doing that, working as hard as he is, and he’s won two World Cups, 100 caps, played in Japan, France and won and everything else in the game, what’s my excuse?’ He raises the level for everyone.”
Nonu advises on strength and conditioning, tactics and plenty else besides at Toulon. His hunger is undiminished as he continues to work away from his wife and high-school aged children who are back home in New Zealand.
“It’s even more impressive that he’s doing it from centre,” Sinckler says. “You get some older props and second-rows who play for longer in attritional positions, but playing at centre, which requires speed, pace and power, you never really see someone still playing at 43 and at the level he is.”
Nonu returned to rugby for East Coast in Ruatoria in 2021
GETTY
That special All Blacks class of 2015 would have a few members who would back themselves to perform at the highest level. McCaw runs ultra-marathons, Sonny Bill Williams boxes and Smith feels he is in good shape but does not think he would have the mental strength Nonu has to keep playing rugby into his forties.
“I went to Pau recently, and they asked me if I would mark up against Ma’a last Saturday, but I’m more than happy to just watch these days,” Smith says.
“I wouldn’t put a couple more seasons past him. It’ll be great to watch. He says he’s in as good a nick as he has ever been. Toulon will be smart in managing him, but I’m sure he’ll be enjoying breaking records.”
Get yourselves down to the Mayol when you can, and you too may have the privilege of watching the marvellous Ma’a.