Mignoni quits as Toulon head coach after one win in five Top 14 matches

Pierre Mignoni has left his role as Toulon head coach with immediate effect, the club confirmed, after a run of four defeats in five Top 14 matches left the three-time European champions stranded in 13th place.

The final straw came on Sunday when Toulon were hammered 28-0 by Montpellier — a result that followed their only league win of the season, a victory over bottom-placed newcomers Vannes. The scale of the underperformance prompted Mignoni to act, with the club stating he “chose to fully assume his responsibilities” and concluded that “a change was now necessary to revitalise the professional team.”

In a formal statement, Toulon said: “Pierre Mignoni informed the management of Rugby Club Toulonnais of his decision to end his mission as Director of Rugby, which the club accepted. This decision comes in the context of insufficient sporting results since the start of the season.”

Franck Azéma, who joined the Stade Mayol over the summer as an assistant, will take over as head coach with immediate effect. Azéma is no stranger to the role — he previously held the position between 2021 and 2023 — and the club confirmed he “will assume the sporting direction of the team until further notice.”

Mignoni first returned to Toulon in 2022, and the club credited him with contributing to the “reconstruction and structuring of the sporting project” during his tenure, including work on the club’s professional setup and academy programme. Despite that longer-term groundwork, results this season proved impossible to defend.

The managerial change places immediate pressure on Azéma to arrest a slide that has left one of French rugby’s most decorated clubs in serious danger of a prolonged mid-table struggle.