Purists will rue the day if chequebook rugby, as appears alarmingly possible, wins Top 14 silverware, writes Gregor Paul.
Early this morning, yet more pressure could have been piled on New Zealand rugby in the week they announced a $15.9 million loss.
Toulon, the French club the New Zealand Rugby Union have come to loathe, will secure a home semifinal in the Top 14 if they win away at
Brive.
It will give Toulon their best chance of winning the title they so desperately want and their first since 1992.
Should they secure the silverware, it will do much more than appease the ego of mega-rich owner Mourad Boudjellal. It will be a victory for a set of values few thought could succeed in rugby and ultimately will lead to yet more ridiculous offers to leading New Zealand players.
Carl Hayman was lured to the south of France not through any desire to be part of something historic and quintessentially French, but because he was offered $1.5m a season - a salary way beyond what was offered by any of his other suitors.
Sonny Bill Williams, a player the All Black coaches are becoming increasingly sold on, is, according to Boudjellal at least, 99 per cent certain to stay with Toulon.
If that's true, it will be because Williams has been won over by the size of his new pay deal.
Toulon have seen New Zealand as a supermarket where they can wander in, fill their trolley any time they like and buy things that might not necessarily be on the shelves.
Jerry Collins went there in 2008 when he had a year left on his NZRU contract. Mils Muliaina was close, very close, to signing with Toulon last year and they were, until late in the piece, the likely club for Dan Carter's six-month sabbatical.
Next year, when the bulk of senior All Blacks coming off contract will have to commit their post-World Cup futures, Toulon will be in a frenzy.
They will try to buy everyone and, given their wealth and with the prospect now of vindication that titles can be bought, they will most likely enjoy a successful shopping spree.
This is why Toulon have been accused of having no soul. In 2008 they were singled out by former France coach Bernard Laporte, who is now minister of sport, for being the worst example of a club that had used the cheque book to assemble a band of mercenaries who felt nothing for the jersey.
"When I look at this Toulon team, there are three French players. It's hard to say that 12 foreign players represent an identity, a culture, the supporters who love the jersey," he said.
"When you went to play at [Toulon's home ground] Stade Mayol in days gone by, you were scared because of the bond between team and public. I believe that Toulon has got the ratio between French and foreign players wrong."
But Boudjellal, a comic-book tycoon, cares not for sentiment or heritage, especially when he can prove that assembling a side of disparate individuals can win titles.
He has the depth in his pockets to outspend the market. What he wants, he gets and it's little wonder Toulon are not loved by anyone other than agents.
The NZRU accept there is a global market for players and that, inevitably, with limited resources and a weak currency, they will lose talent.
What irks, incenses them even, is the unrealistic offers that come from Toulon that not only robs New Zealand of talent but also undermines the inclusive, no-one-is-bigger-than-the-team ethos being promoted here.
New Zealand rugby is all about connection with the jersey, working for your mates and being aligned emotionally. The Crusaders have built a legacy on the back of their team culture which has the foundation of pride, passion, connection, teamwork and belief.
The NZRU, not that they would ever say it so explicitly, would have loved to have seen Toulon hammered this year.
Relegation would have been the ideal outcome, preferably leading to Boudjellal scurrying off in search of alternative vanity products.
Instead, Toulon are now poised to hunt harder for mercenaries, convinced that rugby teams need not be a band of brothers.
In Boudjellal's world, money can buy yachts, nice houses and now, it seems, rugby success.
