TOULOUSE 2005

If you think the Toulouse team of today is impressive, you should look back 20 years!

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THE CURRENTToulouse team is one of the greatest club sides ever to grace the game of rugby.

Led by Antoine Dupont and head coach Ugo Mola, they have waltzed to five of the last six Top 14 titles and a record-extending sixth European Cup last year in arguably the most competitive period that French club rugby has seen. Yet in my heart, I still think the team of 20 years ago was better, writes Joe Robinson. Maybe it's nostalgia that is fogging my memory; those endless hours playing rugby video games on my PlayStation creating bias towards a team from two decades ago. But that team has something intangible - an aura that encapsulated French rugby at the turn of the century.

Ironically, however, 2005 sat in the middle of a fairly barren period for the club. Well, as barren as it can get for a rugby superpower. Between 2002 and 2007, Toulouse failed to win the Top 14 in a period dominated by Biarritz and Stade Fran çais.