Stuck in the Midol: Our round-up of the week's headline stories and lesser-spotted news from French rugby's bi-weekly broadsheet, Midi Olympique (and beyond)

What a swell party this is!

Less than two weeks after Les Bleus' heroic World Cup Final defeat, the Top 14 is gripped by fever. Not the expected rugby fever, but a dose of the mumps which has seen three matches postponed.

First to fall was the clash of promoted pair Bordeaux-Begles and Lyon, called off 24 hours before last Saturday's kick-off. Six cases have been reported among Lyon's playing and coaching staff since October 1, with lock Arnaud Marchois and outside-half Regis Lespinas the hardest hit.

On Sunday evening, it was announced that this Saturday's much-awaited Basque derby - the 100th meeting between Biarritz and Bayonne - would also have to be postponed. The French league's medical advisors expressed concerns about the risks to the health of the Biarritz players who had played Lyon on October 22 and by association to that of their Bayonne rivals.

Just 24 hours later, Montpellier's visit to Lyon was also called off for the same precautionary reasons.

Of course, it wouldn't be French rugby without the odd conspiracy theory or general whinge, and online gossip, notably from Bayonne supporters, suggested that the real reason Biarritz president Serge Blanco requested a postponement was because the club, currently bottom of the Top 14 with just one win in nine games, had failed to sell enough tickets to cover the cost of hiring San Sebastien's Estadio Anoeta for the event. In fact, the club responded, 20,000 tickets had been sold since last Monday - twice as many as had been expected.

Nevertheless, when the match is eventually played, Biarritz (and for that matter Bayonne) will have welcomed back the international players they have missed so desperately in the first third of the season. Of course, the league could always re-arrange the games for the first available date in the Top 14 calendar, which just happens to coincide with the opening weekend of the Six Nations in February.

Bordeaux coach Marc Delpoux, though grateful that his players had been protected against the contagious disease, wondered why action hadn't been taken sooner. "I would have liked [the Lyon players] to have been protected a week earlier, against Biarritz," he told le Midol.

"They didn't think about Biarritz. And why were the Lyon players allowed to continue to train amongst themselves? I don't understand why Stade Francais could play, they played Lyon within the 15-day incubation period. Why was it only our match that was postponed? We've all got to hope the epidemic doesn't spread to Biarritz, Paris, Clermont and Toulouse. We'd spent all week planning for the visit of Lyon."

Lyon coach Raphael Saint-André responded angrily, stressing the health of his own players above a mere game of rugby. "Two Lyon players have been hit hard by the virus, even fearing for their fertility," he told Rugbyrama.fr. We'd like the Bordeaux manager to come and explain to them why a simple rugby match should be played, risking contamination of other players.

"The most punished team here is Lyon because as well as having to confront the illness, we have to put up with the cancellation of matches and training sessions."

Marc and me

One of those players who Biarritz will be eager to welcome back is Imanol Harinordoquy, although Patrice Lagisquet's coaching team will be wary of the rumours that the France No.8 led a coup against coach Marc Lievremont in the latter part of the tournament. Harinordoquy uses his interview with le Midol to put the record straight.

"There is no special relationship between Marc and me," he said. "Everything that's been said on the subject is false. There was never a big discussion between the two of us.

"But I don't miss him. He threw aspects of our life as a squad into the public domain. Stories about what happened on the bus, in the bedrooms... that sticks in my craw. No-one in the squad found that normal.

"After the defeat by Tonga I did not attach too much importance to what Marc said. We decided to take matters into our own hands. It was our adventure, it should have been a great adventure for 30 blokes. We had to free ourselves from his responsibility.

"He lacked perspective and experience. He upset the press, and that came back to haunt us - the pressure on the squad became stifling.

"But he never gave me any trouble. I found him lost and a little out of it. But mankind's adventures are always a little complicated, and I'll take nothing from this World Cup but the best."

Back to business

Harinordoquy won't be back in action this weekend courtest of Lyon's swollen glands, but Toulouse could be back to full strength for Saturday's clash with Perpignan. As if they need them after just two defeats in their nine matches so far, les Toulousains will soon be able to count on their eight French representatives, with their Catalan opponents welcoming back four including prop Nicolas Mas and centre pairing Mermoz and Marty.

But it's Biarritz who will be most grateful to see their not-quite-conquering heroes back in red and white, with the spine of the team from prop Fabien Barcella through Harinordoquy and No.8 Rafael Lakafia to scrum-half Yachvili and full back Damien Traille due back in action whenever Biarritz next play. Little wonder they've won only one match so far and sit at the foot of the Top 14: we've got visions of their five Bleus stepping off the plane and into a chaotic Stade d'Aguilera with a "what the hell happened here?" look on their faces.

But it's their neighbours Bayonne who have stolen a march on the rest, full-back Cedric Heymans making his debut for the Basques against Perpignan last weekend. He managed 57 minutes in l'Aviron's 18-16 win, and couldn't really see the fuss in his whistle-stop journey from plane to Paris to pitch.

"I arrived in Bayonne on Friday morning and I didn't train but I did have a crazy need to play, I've wanted to for a long time," he told le Midol. "It was logical that I play given the difficulties of the team. I tried to keep it as simple as possible so as not to handicap the side."

In the Bayonne mood

Heymans won't be the only new face in Bayonne's colours over the coming weeks. Former All Black speedster Joe Rokocoko arrived in town on Monday, Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips was seen giving Pottoka a pre-match smacker on Saturday, and Yoann Huget returns from his three-month ban for missing a drugs test in two weeks.

With this wealth of talent on the way, the sky blue Basques won't really miss Joe Pietersen then, after the South African full back has decided to quit France and return home for family reasons. The club are allegedly looking to replace him with another Southern Hemisphere star, namely World Cup final one-kick wonder Stephen Donald, though president Michel Cacouault has been swift to deny the rumour.

Too many captains...

Montpellier have also been missing key players in the form of Francois Trinh-Duc and Fulgence Ouedraogo, whose return will be all the more pressing after les Heraultais went through five captains in the second half of their 18-12 defeat at Agen last Saturday.

Starting skipper Thibault Privat threw the metaphorical armband to Julien Tomas on 57 minutes, before Tomas passed it on to Remy Martin five minutes later. Martin was replaced with seven minutes to play, and in the final minutes referee Pascal Gauzere called for a word with the Montpellier captain. Up walk flanker Vassili Bost and scrum-half Benoit Paillaugue (both replacements themselves).

"Who is the captain?" said M. Gauzere. "I am," said the pair in unison, before Bost, presumably as the bigger man, took the honours after a heated debate. Is it any wonder they haven't come near to matching last year's runners-up form?

Laporte makes port

Toulon have had their World Cup absentees back for a week or two, but that's the benefit of signing English players I suppose. Their new coach Bernard Laporte made his Stade Mayol bow by appointing Jonny Wilkinson captain, and the England international duly obliged by kicking six out of seven penalties in their workmanlike 18-3 win over Brive.

It was an emotional day for 'Kaiser' Laporte, as he returned to French club rugby almost 12 years after quitting Stade Francais to coach the French national side. After the 2007 Rugby World Cup he had a brief stint as Minister for Sport before working for radio station RMC and Canal+ TV. As he stepped off the bus at Stade Mayol, Toulon's supporters gave the new boss a guard of honour.

"It was emotional," he told le Midol. "I've experienced the atmosphere here from the visitors' coach and I can tell you that it's much better in the Toulon bus! It's a privilege to be backed by supporters like this. I don't like neutrality and I know they wouldn't be neutral here."

Raisin hell

Long-time readers may remember that early last year, Agen launched a competition to design a new mascot of the club. Inspired by French rugby's many marvellous mascots and several hours enjoying Gégé's patronage in Bar du Stade, we paid homage to the town's finest foodstuff and sent our artist's impression of Bruno le Pruneau to Stade Armandie. Here he is...

...And we never heard back. Fair enough, the man with the goat must have got an extra year out of his old bike. Or a new bike. Or a new goat. So it's with great disappointment that we came across this clip of the hatching of SUA's new mascot, inspired by the eagle from the town's coat of arms.

If anyone needs a giant dried fruit costume, let us know.