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Zach Mercer admits he has a lot to live up as an Englishman on the Mediterranean, with less than a month to go until he returns to France’s Top 14 with Toulon.
The 28-year-old signed a three-year deal with Toulon after two seasons with Gloucester. He joined the Cherry and Whites in 2023 from Montpellier, where he won the Top 14 and the player of the season award, so he know what it takes to excel across the Channel.
Toulon have not won the Top 14 since 2014 when England’s Jonny Wilkinson played his final professional match in the final at the Stade de France. In winning it he helped Toulon to a double after they won the Champions Cup against Saracens in Cardiff, his final professional match in the UK.
LES GALACTICOS
It was a stellar side that also won the Champions Cup in 2013 and 2015, and featured other England internationals in Simon Shaw, Delon and Steffon Armitage, and international stars that included Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell, Bryan Habana, Mathieu Bastareaud, and Juan Fernandez-Lobbe.
“When you're English, is wearing this jersey ever trivial? Because Toulon, for an Englishman, conjures images of Jonny Wilkinson,” Mercer said.
“If I accomplish even half of what Jonny has achieved here, that will already be extraordinary. I want to win the Bouclier de Brennus (Top 14 trophy) and the Champions Cup.”
Mercer’s two years at Kingsholm came to an anti-climactic end. He joined with the aim of establishing himself in the England squad but didn’t add to the two caps he won in 2018.
He helped Gloucester to the EPRC Challenge Cup final where they lost to the Sharks, but early in his second season he injured his knee and didn’t play another match for Gloucester.
REFRESHED AND RENEWED
Toulon are confident that his knee is healing in time for their Top 14 opener, away to Montpellier on the first weekend of September.
“I arrived the first week of July. It was dealt with by the medical staff,” Mercer said. “We wanted to take a closer look at my knee with the physios, to make sure that when I resumed training at the end of July, I would be 100 percent.
“I feel like I'm being renewed. In my mind, in my body. With a little hindsight, I think the knee injury did me good. It's hard to be away from the field for seven months, but you have to understand that, since I was 18, I've never been able to take a break.
“Now I've been refreshed, and I'm even hungrier.”