Heymans sets the record straight

Cédric Heymans will be playing in his record fifth Heineken Cup Final on Saturday and will be a key player for the French club against Munster in Cardiff as they aim to use their famous brand of attcaking rugby to win a fourth title.

Cédric Heymans will be playing in his record fifth Heineken Cup Final on Saturday and will be a key player for the French club against Munster in Cardiff as they aim to use their famous brand of attcaking rugby to win a fourth title.

“I didn't realise it was a record, I never really thought about it,” said Heymans, who will be palying his fourth final for Toulouse to add to one for Brive.

“There's just one thing that scares me a little. I've been in five finals and the only one that I've lost was when I was in the starting XV. So the coach is going to have to think about that!”

Heymans says the secret to Toulouse's success is the fact that the players take pleasure in facing the pressures of big matches.

“The key to [the semi-final victory] was we came into it looking to enjoy ourselves,” explained the French international.

“The pleasure lies in the difficulty of the task. We had to keep attacking and we were faced with a London Irish team that never stopped producing attacking rugby. When two teams both play positively, its rugby that wins. That's what's great about the European Cup, all we think about is producing exciting rugby.”

More than just enjoying their rugby, the ethos at Toulouse is very much focused on solidarity and team spirit. For many clubs the injuries to key players might have spelt the end of their hopes. For Toulouse, the injuries to players like Florian Fritz, Clément Poitrenaud and Vincent Clerc has spurred the players on.

Despite having hung up their boots for the season, both Poitrenaud and Clerc are part of the official delegation travelling to Cardiff while Fritz has returned to the playing field with scintillating form that could see him in the mix on Saturday.

“[We've reached the Final] because we wanted to enjoy ourselves and to pay tribute to our injured friends,” said Heymans.

“We don't play with 22 or 23 or even 24 players, we play as a group of 30. That's the difference between us and some other teams – we live as a group and we always stick together.”

Toulouse's build up to their semi-final was hampered by a loss in the Top 14 to rivals Clermont, but they bounced back to beat London Irish at Twickenham after turning there attention inward and blocking out criticism and outsiders harping on about the past. In similar fashion Toulouse have battened down the hatches after a less-than-convincing display against Montauban.

“Against Clermont we played a good game, we've seen the stats and we did what we had to, we made the correct tactical choices,” said the wing turned full-back.

“Things didn't come off in that match but against London Irish they did. The strength of Stade Toulousain, which still amazes me, is that in difficult times there's almost a sort of bubble that forms around the team and no one can get to us. We might then have good games or bad games, but that's not the point, we really live as a separate entity.

The three-time Champions have not had an easy path to the Final but Heymans believes his side are the better for it.

“A lot has been said about difficult pools, and ours was very complicated but we were lucky enough to make it through,” he said.

“We had to play against a Cardiff side that were very difficult to beat, but all that brings assuredness to our game.”

Like Heymans, Toulouse will be playing in their fifth Heineken Cup Final. The star back-row player believes that the competition suits the French club's flamboyant style of play.

“It's true that the European Cup has smiled on Toulouse. I think it's more the approach of the European Cup that you need to look at, in the sense that we play positive rugby, there's seldom dirty play or punch-ups because the sanctions are really costly,” he explained.

“I think you need to draw inspiration from that, and the referees, who have good and bad days like we do, but are in the mood for positive rugby. Even if some bad choices are made regarding the stadiums, [like at Twickenham] were there were only 30,000 people which is a shame, we owe it to ourselves to continue playing attractive rugby and bring even more people into the stadiums.”