Toulon of the early 2010's is likely the closest rugby has ever had to a 'Galaticos' or Harlem Globetrotters team.
Some say that Leinster's current squad with the likes of RG Snyman and Jordie Barrett on top of the Irish Internationals is an embarrassment of riches but Toulon from just over a decade ago were in a league of its own.
Spearheaded by rugby icon Johnny Wilkinson at fly-half, Toulon won three Heineken Cups in-a-row with a squad which had the likes of Bryan Habana, Matt Giteau, Bakkies Botha and Steffon Armitage just to name a few. They even had Paul O'Connell on their books briefly, though the Irish legend never got to suit up in the south of France after sustaining a career-ending hamstring injury at the 2015 World Cup.
It seemed like every summer the side who were bankrolled by comic book entrepreneur Mourad Boudjellal, would sign a new superstar, whether it was Ma'a Nonu, Juan Martin Hernandez or Liam Messam. That spell from 2013-2015 where they won 3 Heineken Cups is probably the most dominant spell in European Club rugby history and a story has come out showing how they could've been even more dominant.
Back in 2013 the IRFU had a problem agreeing contracts with their star players, which saw Johnny Sexton head to France himself to join Racing 92 but it also nearly saw 2 of his Leinster and Ireland teammates make the move to France as well.
Speaking on the All About the Game Podcast, Sean O'Brien spoke about how he and Jamie Heaslip nearly made to move to the Riviera to join Toulon.
I remember years ago in 2013 myself and Jamie Heaslip actually went over to Toulon. It was actually funny because Toulon said they wanted 2 teams. They wanted one to compete in the Top 14 to win it and they wanted one to win Europe.
So we went over and I had actually signed a pre-contract with them because at the time I was on an IRFU contract but they were arsing around with me. I thought my value was more than what i was on so I wanted. a better contract and Jamie was roughly the same. So the two of us landed over to Toulon for a weekend. So they [IRFU] thought it was obviously a bit of a ploy like but I was actually genuinely impressed when I went over there.
So the following Tuesday, Boudjellal the owner was meant to fly on his private plane into Dublin and I was meant to meet him at the airport with my agent and sign the contract but the weather was so bad he couldn't fly. On the Wednesday my agent got a call off the union basically saying they're going to give you what you wanted because they got wind of it.
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As ever the Irish weather came in for some divine intervention and Sean O'Brien and Jamie Heaslip remained in Dublin. Had they made the move there's no doubt that Toulon would've been more dominant than they already were. Sean O'Brien was at the peak of his power after winning European Player of the Year in 2011 and was one of the best flankers on the planet. Meanwhile Jamie Heaslip would've been turning 30 but still one of the World's elite number 8's and them two alongside Steffon Armitage in a back-row would've been one of the most feared in rugby.
It's interesting to see what a move like that would've meant for Irish rugby. As it's not a written law, it's widely accepted that if you move abroad you can't play for Ireland. With Sexton being really the only player in the last decade that's been able to play abroad while still being selected for Ireland, it would've been hard for the IRFU to not select O'Brien and Heaslip had they moved to France.
And with that, who's to say that more Irish players would've moved abroad. The IRFU would've had significantly less power if they selected all 3 players and would've had to make a hard decision of whether to write a foreign-based player rule into law or not. It's a very interesting hypothetical situation.
