Apparently, life at Toulon isn’t all rainbows, sunshine and million € contracts. Not only is Mourad Boudjellal threatening to tear up Leigh Halfpenny’s contract because the Welsh goal-kicking replacement for Johnny Wilkinson dared to sustain an injury.
Now, Boudjellal has threatened legal action over stars still on international duty in The Rugby Championship if they don’t return to Toulon to take part in this weekend’s Top14 competition.
Boudjellal is threatening Argentine star Juan Martin Fernández Lobbe and Springboks Bryan Habana and Bakkies Botha if they don’t return to play Brive this weekend.
According to ESPN, Boudjellal has threatened to not pay his stars if they refuse to return and has also issued an ultimatum, even threatening court action in France.
All three stars are with their respective squads preparing for the matches next weekend with Argentina set to host the All Blacks and the Springboks ready to host the Wallabies. But Boudjellal believes he has rights to his players this weekend and is prepared to take them to court.
This power-mad behaviour on threatening legal action over Halfpenny, and the three southern hemisphere stars is a carry-on from Boudjellal – not so subtle threat to the Queensland Reds over star recruit James O’Connor.
The Reds believe they have signed O’Connor on a two-year contract, but the Toulon boss was having non of that, saying that his star utility back would return to France once the Rugby World Cup was complete.
And what should be a worry for the Reds, is that Boudjellal doesn’t like to be told “no”.
However, there is one thing the billionaire is planning that the rugby world is looking forward to. A potential match-up between the Heineken Cup champions and the Super Rugby champions.
While this match has been planned in the past, and has fallen through for various reasons, out of all previous attempts, this is more likely than ever before to go ahead because of the precarious financial situation the ARU has found themselves in, in recent years.
That would be a mouth-watering match-up that will be talked about for years to come, however, the banter is bound to surround who’s match-fit and who’s in the middle of pre-season.
