TONY Gigot is ready to jab through the vaccine-inspired chaos at Toulouse and inspire them to Super League survival after starting all over again.
The French newcomers lost captain Johnathon Ford after he refused to get a Covid-19 inoculation after the Government made it mandatory for sports stars to have them.
Full-back Mark Kheirallah’s future is also in doubt as draconian measures on the other side of the Channel take their toll.
Gigot, though, has stepped in as skipper for Olympique’s inaugural Super League campaign and for him it is business as usual.
Much of that attitude is because he went back to playing amateur rugby league with his friends in Avignon after being caught up in the mess of Toronto Wolfpack’s meltdown.
He now knows that despite everything going on around the club, at the end of the day it is just playing the game he loves once again.
“When Toronto pulled out, it was the start of Covid-19 and I didn’t know where I’d go,” recalled Gigot, who won the Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match in Catalans’ historic 2018 Challenge Cup final win and played at Wakefield in 2020.
“Last winter with the pandemic, being away from France was hard for me. So I went home to Avignon and played with my friends.
“Players worked all day and trained two or three times a week but it made me happy.
“I just wanted to get back playing and enjoying rugby league again. After Toronto and with Covid-19, my love dropped a little.
“It’s my passion, though and it grew again as I played alongside my friends and had fun with little pressure on the results. It made me think how lucky I was but I needed to push myself.
“The opportunity at Toulouse came along, I grabbed it and now I’m back in Super League.
“Losing Johnno was big, especially just before the season’s start but as players we just have to look after our own jobs, that’s the best thing we can do.
“Different things happen every year – be it an injury or as has happened in recent years, Covid-19.
“That’s been difficult to deal with. We had to close as a club for four days at one point as we had too many cases. We trained alone but it’s the same all over the world and we’re lucky to do what we do.”
Toulouse’s promotion, bringing Super League to France’s fourth largest city, was seen as a step in the right direction for the sport.
But in typical rugby league fashion, things got in the way. Now many feel Sylvain Houles’ men are relegation certainties.
However, despite the loss of big figures in the team – and not a great deal of recruitment – Gigot feels the talent and experience is still there to survive.
That may also see him keep the captain’s armband he had for his nation’s Test defeat to England in October.
The 31-year-old, who can play at full-back, in the halves or at centre, added: “Johnno leaving is an opportunity for another talented player to come in.
“We knew the season would be really tough anyway. We know if we’re to succeed in Super League, we’ll have to play a bit more expansively but hopefully we can stay there for a few years.”
