Brookes in to power up Toulon set-piece

Four weeks out from the start of the Top 14 campaign, and pre-season is just about in full swing. Champions Toulouse will be the last to return to full training – most players are due back at Stade Ernest Wallon this week after a deserved six-week break following their double-winning exploits. Theirs will be a breakneck preparation – there’s time in the program for just one warm-up match before the trip to La Rochelle on opening weekend.

- JAMES HARRINGTON

It’s a difficult job, but if any club can do it, it’s Toulouse – and Ugo Mola at least will have key internationals, including Antoine Dupont, Julien Marchand, Romain Ntamack, and Thomas Ramos, rested and available immediately.

But while the future looks hectic but rosy at born-again Toulouse, the same can hardly be said of Toulon, where head coach Patrice Collazo desperately eyes improvement after three seasons in charge without reaching the end-of-season play-offs.

Collazo arrived after a frankly crazy period following the belated departure of Bernard Laporte in which the club burned through four head and interim head coaches in two seasons – Diego Dominguez, Mike Ford, Richard Cockerill, and Fabien Galthie all came and went in quick succession, three of them in a single campaign in 2016/17.

He’s at least got rid of the revolving door to the manager’s office, but his tenure has hardly been relaxed. And the pressure is mounting.

At Toulouse, Mola is in a strong position with three titles in the last two completed seasons – but it’s not long ago that his future at the club was on the line. A change of president and a clear plan focused on rebuilding using remarkable academy foundations has taken both him and the club from then to now.

Likewise, Collazo has also been charged with rebuilding Toulon from the academy up – but the foundations at Berg are much shallower than those at Ernest Wallon. It will take time for them to develop depth.

There are promising signs – Louis Carbonel, Anthony Belleau, Gervais Cordin and Erwan Dridi are all academy undergrads. But they are just the first through the door. It’s the next phase and the one after that will show how bright a ‘Made in Toulon’ future could be.