Struggling Toulon Hit with Double Injury Blow

The last thing French club Toulon need right now is injury problems. They currently sit 11th in the Top 14 and have picked up just one victory in their last seven games so the news that Santiago Dellape and Esteban Lozada will miss the match against Montauban on Friday won’t exactly be music to their ears.

Italian international lock Dellape is set to be out of action for at least six weeks after injuring his right knee ligaments. This latest injury for the 29-year-old came only a few days after he returned to the side after another injury. So, just as Toulon thought they had one of their main men back in the fold—he goes and get’s injured again.

As for Lozada, well his injury isn’t likely to be as serious as his fellow second row forward. The Argentinian has an ankle injury but is expected to return to training next week and put himself in line for a return in the fixture against Toulouse on the 15th November.

In terms of Toulon’s overall position, they could certainly do with a decent run of form sooner rather than later. Looking at their results reveals that it’s only two wins all season for them and both of these wins came before the end of September—the last month or so has been a very difficult time for the French club.

In terms of the rugby odds at the beginning of the season, there is no doubt they were expected to do better than they are at the moment. Despite only just being promoted from the ProD2, they made a number of eye-catching signings that should have propelled them to a more advanced league position at this stage.

Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal has ploughed a lot of money into the French club and there is no way he will be happy with the current situation. The coaching staff tried to improve matters back in September with the promotion of former youth team coach Aubin Heuber to forwards coach, but judging by recent results, it doesn’t seem that this has had the desired affect.

Their intentions now turn to this Friday when they travel to 8th placed Montauban, without Dellape or Lazada, searching for only their third triumph of the season. Montauban have only lost once at home so far though and that was against high-flying Toulouse. Therefore I don’t think many rugby bets will be placed on Toulon turning around their season anytime soon.