Di Rollo hails French template as memories flood back

EDINBURGH could build future success by mirroring the example of today’s opponents Toulouse, according to the one Scot who has played for both clubs.

Marcus Di Rollo left Edinburgh for the European champions in 2007, but once he had joined up and was in full training they took fright at a medical report that showed up a heart murmur. Di Rollo had had the condition from birth, and it did not stop him playing for Watsonians, Edinburgh and Scotland, on 21 occasions, but French medics were uncertain and refused to countenance him taking the field.

He played in one league match and a handful of games for the reserves, but at the end of the season the club agreed to release him having struggled to get round the issue. It took months more to clear the red tape and so Di Rollo took the decision, at 30, to retire from the game.

“The memories have all come back this week,” he said. “On one hand if I hadn’t gone maybe I’d still be playing now, but how could you regret joining one of the world’s best teams? I remember being part of the 2004 quarter-final against Toulouse and then joining the club and just being part of a very high-quality set-up. I made some good friends and I’m going out to the hotel tonight [Friday] to catch up with them.

“Guys I knew well like [Yannick] Bru and [Jean-Baptiste] Ellisalde have moved into the coaching team, while Max Mermoz has gone to Perpignan and Vincent Clerc’s injured, but [Clement] Poitrenaud and [Patricio] Albacete are still there and I know this is a big game for them too.

“But it’s when you look at that set-up that you understand why they are so consistently good in Europe, and it could be the secret to Edinburgh progressing too. Yes, they have quality players, and now go and buy whoever they want to fill gaps, but that has come from their ability to be successful first.

“They have a strong ethic about promoting from within and doing things the Toulouse way. The coach Guy Noves has been there for ever, Bru and Ellisalde became coaches and William Servat is stepping up and they are challenged to maintain the quality and consistency.

“Edinburgh play a similar fast-paced style of rugby and I’d like to see them take the same approach, promote from within and keep that Edinburgh feel.

“Munster and Leinster have done something similar. It wasn’t that long ago that they were playing in front of one man and his dog, but they built around their own talent, reached the knockout stages in Europe, started building a support and then invested to bring in some top-class foreign talent to help them.

“We were not that far away in 2004 when we reached the quarter-finals with quality guys like Todd Blackadder and Brendan Laney in, and I remember Frank Hadden saying that if we invested in the squad we could build on that, but that didn’t happen.

“I spoke a while back to Andy Irvine and he told me the SRU was on its knees financially then and so couldn’t put more money into the teams, and you have to accept that, but why others have succeeded and we haven’t is no secret then.”

He continued: “Look at the crowd for this game and the way people in Scotland want to be involved with a winning team.

“We’ve been teetering on the edge in pro rugby in Scotland, but if we use this weekend’s great occasion to build the way the Irish provinces and Toulouse have, and find a new stadium somewhere, I see no reason why we can’t emulate those clubs.”