Scot who defied the physical trend ends 12 years with Toulon on a European high

FRANCE CLAIMED Europe's big prize yesterday in Paris and the country will hope to add another piece of silverware to their spoils when Toulon meet Cardiff in the Amlin Challenge Cup this afternoon in Marseilles.

The focus will inevitably fall upon England's out-of-sorts stand off Jonny Wilkinson who looks happier in Toulon's colours than he does when turning out for his country. The much-fted Xavier Rush plays his final match for the Blues before joining Ulster next season and there is even a rumour that his one-time team-mate Tana Umaga may get a surprise gallop off the bench before he heads home to New Zealand in the summer.

One man will be largely ignored by the media scrum, although not by the Toulon fans who know and appreciate Phil Fitzgerald better than most. The Scot is the club's longest-serving player, the heartbeat of the place, a link to the good-old, bad-old days before comic-book entrepreneur Mourad Boudjellal threw his millions at the club.

A product of Dollar Academy and briefly a player with Watsonians and Boroughmuir, Fitzgerald has now completed 12 seasons at Toulon and today marks his final farewell to the club. He has already said "adieu" to the fans in the last game of the season at the impressive Stade Felix Mayol.

"I had a very emotional send off from Mayol after the quarter-final against the Scarlets," says Fitzgerald. "I had family in the stands for my last ever game there, it turned into a really big evening. The team stayed in the tunnel (before the game] and I stood in the middle of the field for a good while. At the end of the match I was carried on shoulders around the pitch. To get that sort of send-off from the players and crowd was really special.

"Ever since then I've tried to take it one game at a time and try and make the most of every game, just savour every minute as much as possible. It was a very special moment."

The Scot now has a difficult choice to make. He has been offered a job with the club's academy while doubling up as a scout. A holder of a Scots law degree and a masters in French law, Fitzgerald could opt to concentrate full time on completing the PhD he is halfway through or the veteran hooker could look for another club. That doesn't look likely at the age of 33 and Fitzgerald admits that he would find it difficult to pull on any other team's colours, such is the emotional capital he has invested in Toulon. It will be a wrench for him but the question remains how has the pint-sized Scot managed to survive and thrive in arguably the most physical league in world rugby?

"I've been thinking about this lately," he replies. "I am more of a journeyman or a grinder than anything else and every squad needs someone like that, every squad needs some sort of continuity and I've played that role over the last few years at Toulon.

"I'd like to think that I've been very committed to the club and that's been true from their side as well. Over the last few years with such changes going on at the club (following Boudjellal's financial injection] I have been able to experience all these things and that's a bonus, a real bonus."

Fitzgerald is living proof that statistics only tell half the story in top class rugby where the intangibles of desire, determination and character can mask a multitude of shortcomings. Fitzgerald is probably 10kg shy of a competitive weight, he is short and, if their match against Connacht is anything to go by, his arrows at the lineout owe more to Phil Spector than Phil Taylor. Yet he personifies the true grit of a Toulon side that finished second in the Top 14 after winning more matches than any other team. They may boast a roster of superstars but Fitzgerald is a link to Toulon of old, the Toulon that played in ProD2, the Toulon that was relegated after their first season with the big boys in 2005-6, and that is priceless.

When the money did arrive, the club spent it wisely. South African Joe Van Niekerk, England's Tom May, the Argentine duo Felipe Contepomi and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe are all grounded, earthy characters whose feet are fixed on terra firma. Meanwhile Jonny Wilkinson must be the most level-headed sporting superstar on the planet, eschewing the centre spread in gossip magazines in favour of all the glamour that comes with some extra graft after the rest of the squad has hit the showers.

"He is just a great example to anyone," says Fitzgerald. "Jonny is by far the hardest trainer I have ever seen and he is not frightened to work on any aspect of the game with any player. I work on my throwing with him for example. It's just all the little bits and pieces, he'll work on anything.

"He's there before training and he hangs around afterwards. He has an enormous input into every aspect of the club, there is no doubt that he is an incredible professional."

Toulon will need Wilkinson et al to deliver in spades this afternoon. Although the French side are clear favourites – and with the game held in Marseilles' atmospheric Stade Velodrome they have to be – they underestimate Cardiff at their peril. The Blues are the form side in Europe at the moment and sit in second place in the Eurorugby ranking.

Dai Young's team not only defeated Munster recently but they have lost just two matches in the last 14 starts while Toulon have the agony of last weekend's Top 14 semi-final defeat to work through their system. They fought back to tie the match against Clermont only for les Jaunards to snatch victory in extra time.

"We've taken a couple of days to get over it but now all our minds are focused on Cardiff," says Fitzgerald. "Nobody thinks that they are going to be pushovers."

While he is half-way removed from Scottish rugby, Fitzgerald is aware that there are a number of good, under-employed hookers in Scotland and he heartily recommends that they copy his example and look abroad for advancement. Sadly France may no longer be an option. The authorities are mindful of the fact that a large number of Top 14 players are not qualified to play for the country so they have introduced a rule requiring that by the year 2012, 60 per cent of a club's playing roster must have come through a French club academy; it's a move that will limit the appetite of Toulon (and others) for foreign players.

Had it been in place 12 years ago, Fitzgerald would almost certainly have been lost to the professional ranks; too small by far to interest the Scottish pro teams. A rugby player who has tasted success despite rather than because of his physical prowess, Fitzgerald has got by on grit rather than girth, living on a diet of determination when modern coaches are looking for bulk and bench-presses.

He may be one of a dying breed but Fitzgerald will play the last match of his professional career this afternoon just as he has every other one, giving everything for the cause, and if the rest of the Toulon players can say the same then it should be enough.