MATHIEU BASTAREAUD ONCE WANTED TO ‘SLAP’ KYLE SINCKLER, NOW HE IS PAYING HIM ‘JONNY WILKINSON-LIKE’ COMPLIMENTS

Ex-England prop Kyle Sinckler has received a ringing endorsement from Mathieu Bastareaud, the retired France midfielder who now works as team manager at Toulon. 

It was last summer when the tighthead crossed the Channel, exiting Bristol to take up a deal in the Top 14.

He quickly settled in but the momentum of his first season was checked by the broken forearm injury he sustained in January when playing against Harlequins, his other former English club, in the Investec Champions Cup, and then a calf muscle injury sustained in the same tournament against Saracens in the round of 16.

Sinckler has since returned to fitness and was a starter in Toulon’s May 10 league loss to defending champions Toulouse. This defeat has left the club in third place on the Top 14 table with three regular season matches remaining, including next Saturday’s trip to Pau.

Ahead of that match, which would be Sinckler’s 20th appearance this season if selected, Bastareaud has appeared on Crunch, the podcast produced by L’Equipe, the French daily sports paper, and he had nothing but the highest praise for the 32-year-old Englishman.

“You might get the impression, when players come in after a World Cup, that they are coming in early retirement,” began Bastareaud, who himself retired from playing in the summer of 2023 following a final season back at Toulon.

“I wanted to slap him!”

“But when I see him on a daily basis, I have never seen a player pay so much attention to detail. The only player I have seen like that in my career is Jonny Wilkinson. It gives you a sense of the player he is.”

Ex-midfielder Bastareaud crossed swords with Sinckler twice on the international stage, the pair appearing on opposite sides in the 2018 and 2019 Six Nations meetings between France and England.

While they are now clubmates, working at Toulon in different capacities, their relationship as rival Test-level players was vocally spicy. “He’s a top player. But, to be honest, when I played against him, I wanted to slap him,” joked Bastareaud.

“And he knows it! He was just talking. But when he arrived, he was a super respectful player, who works hard, and above all, very open.”

Sinckler has two more seasons to come at Toulon having arrived for the 2024/25 campaign on a three-year deal. He made his last appearance for England at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France and decided his next step was calling time on his international career for a shot at playing in the Top 14.

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2025-05-14T09:25:14Z