Play nzherald.co.nz's rugby Pick the Score competition - go to: pickthescore.nzherald.co.nz
KEY POINTS:
It could have been the most dangerous and foolhardy introduction to a rugby man since a Welsh player introduced himself to Colin Meads many years ago by blocking the big
lock's intended run. Surely the broken jaw which subsequently ended Welsh hooker Jeff Young's rugby activities for some time could not have been connected with the great man?
Similarly, the written bashing I gave former All Black Jerry Collins late last year might just have remained on the former Hurricanes man's mind when I walked up to him at Toulon last weekend and said "hi".
"Yeah, I remember you, remember what you wrote," were Collins' first words.
But Jerry Collins is a big man in more ways than one. Injured right now with a knee he couldn't bend which required arthroscopic surgery earlier this week, he still had a warm handshake and a cheery grin for his assailant.
And what he said put his side of the story, told his view of life at the struggling French club which has attracted so much publicity, much of it adverse, this season.
"I came here knowing it would be tough. It's easy to come from somewhere like New Zealand where everything is good and walk into a team like Toulon where everything is easy. But it wasn't like that for me.
"It's like seeing a fire: some people go and get water but others go and see what is causing the fire and why it's so big. I am one of those people.
"A lot of people have the perception that we are being paid all sorts of ridiculous amounts of money. I was getting paid similar money back in New Zealand to what I am getting here.
"You play 10 years in one place and you get sick of it. It's like if you have 10 or 20 years in one job, you have got to move on. I don't regret moving on and coming here."
Let's go back to the Toulon match with Montauban late last year. I reckoned Collins looked several degrees below his best; short of pace and world weary. Heavy criticism? For sure. But Collins puts the counter view.
"Hey, I took the ball up 20 times and probably made 30 tackles. But we were down by 30 points so I take it on the chin. I know that out of all the teams, we are probably the one under the most microscopic attention. It only takes one person to say 'I don't think you played well' and it becomes news.
"But it has been difficult because I played when everyone else was injured. Now I am injured and everyone else is back. But when you're not winning I suppose you get the criticism."
There are, as Collins well knows and puts into words, specific reasons for this state of affairs. "We have a high profile coach, a high profile president." And too many high profile players? Collins takes issue with the latter assertion.
"If you were to sit down and ask yourself how many guys in this team you associate with test rugby, you might be surprised. We don't have a test team. One guy who played league had never played union before. We don't have loads of internationally known players. It's a perception but it's wrong.
"If you are a smart man you would have a look at it. Everybody thinks we have the same budget as Toulouse but we don't. They have a 35,000 seat stadium, we have one of 12,000."
But what of the individuals? There's no doubt the loss of Anton Oliver and Victor Matfield, two players club president Mourad Boudjellal had earmarked as rocks in the Toulon pack for their first Top 14 season back, have been sorely missed. Until South African Joe van Niekerk arrived, you had the impression Collins was playing the opposition single-handed at times.
He underlines the point, calmly but firmly. "Any loose forward is only as good as the trio and the trio is only as good as the tight five. You do the best you can but if the tight five is not going forward and you haven't got a good loose forward trio, you don't go good."
But he's man enough to accept that he joined of his own free will and has had to cop the flak and the heartache that has been flying around the Mediterranean club for some while now. "I signed up for it and I knew in my heart it wasn't going to be an easy job.
"Any team that gets promoted, maybe one in a thousand comes into the top group flying and goes really, really well. But that's not often the case because you are playing against first division teams. And you have gone up with guys who were playing in the second division and while they may have been great there, it's a big jump to make. They won't be as great in the first division.
"I am not complaining about it, that's the way it is."
But it's obvious there has been added pressure on Collins. "Yes, I have a responsibility to go out there but everybody knows who you are. It helps if you have other guys in your team that the opposition knows who they are too. That takes a little heat off you. So I always knew it was going to be tough and it still is tough."
Nevertheless, does he still enjoy it? Maybe his answer is a touch revealing. "I enjoy playing rugby. Obviously your enjoyment factor off the field is dictated by the way you go on the field. But to put it into perspective, I played much of the season here then went to the Barbarians and played for them.
"When you are playing with good players, it's a bit different. You can play out of your skin here but if you lose, they don't really care how you played because you lost. But you can play the same way with other players, it's still football."
As our conversation develops, Collins grins at some of the charges I laid against him in that article.
"Sometimes it's good to know what other people think because the people in your own little square will only tell you what you want to hear.
"Sometimes it's good to hear something maybe you don't want to hear but it's true..."
But what of Toulon as a club? He was equally to the point. "There is a lot of shit off the field, some of it true some untrue. Somebody says something and it becomes twice as big.
"Which is a shame because Toulon is not very big, it's not Paris. But I guess that's what happens when you live in a fishbowl. The little things become big news."
Toulon went into the 2-week break (for the 6 Nations) in better shape mentally after their crushing 38-22, 5 tries to 1 win over bottom club Mont-de-Marsan.
But Collins didn't look or sound to me like he was searching for a crate of champagne to break open.
"My first aim is to keep us up and this result will have gone a long way to settle the nerves.
"But you have got to put it into perspective. This was the last team (in the league) playing the second to last team, not the last team playing the top team. There are still another 11 games to go and we have got to slog it out.
"I wouldn't say it was necessarily the best we have played this season; we just won, that is the difference. When you are winning people go over the top but you can have played well but still lost. We have probably lacked a kicker at times and we've made some slow starts. But this was a battle won, not the war."
Perhaps Jerry Collins' calm reasoning represented another battle won, if not a war, with the Fourth Estate...
