4:00pm, 24 February 2019

Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal’s daughter is the latest family member to send abuse in the direction of beleaguered All Black Julian Savea.

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Boudjellal has come under fire from prominent figures within the rugby fraternity for what many believe to be overly harsh comments made after Toulon’s loss to Agen last week on the back of Savea’s underwhelming performances for the club since joining last year.

However it is his daughter – Rose – who is grabbing headlines in France, sarcastically tweeting: “Julian Savea’s outstanding match.”

Dad was apparently too busy taking aim at a different former All Black who also plied his trade at the club – Andrew Mehrtens.

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Speaking in the wake of the drama to the New Zealand Herald, Mehrtens – who spent a season playing at Toulon after signing for them in 2007 – revealed his experiences with Boudjellal, who took control of the club in 2006, during his time in the south of France.

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Mehrtens scored 261 points in 25 matches for the then-Pro D2 club, and played alongside some of the biggest names in world rugby at the time, including George Gregan, Anton Oliver and Victor Matfield.

“I have no animosity towards him [Boudjellal],” Mehrtens said last week.“There are elements about him that are good. He was the son of Algerian immigrants, and I think he had it tough growing up. He comes from a macho culture. I read once he said his wristwatch was so expensive, he ‘had an apartment on my wrist’.

“For Mourad the thrill is like a kid playing in a fantasy football league. He loves signing the big names, the bigger the better. If he went to an agent and said, ‘Get me the best five players in the world,’ and was told, ‘But the best five players are all fullbacks, he might say, ‘Get me all five anyway.’”

Boudjellal did not spend much time with side on a day-to-day basis, but would insist on speaking to the players in the changing rooms before a game if he was upset, Mehrtens said.

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“He’d come in and tell us we’re all s***, and that no matter what it cost him, if we didn’t win he’d rip up all our contracts, and we’d never play for another club in France.

Unsurprisingly, Boudjellal has now decided to fire back. This afternoon he tweeted: “Merhtens very very great player but also a very large film actor he played the saloon doors in Rio Bravo and the bar counter in the 7 mercenaries”

merhtens très très grand joueur mais aussi un très grand acteur de cinéma il a joué les portes de saloon dans Rio bravo et le comptoir de bar dans les 7 mercenaires — Mourad Boudjellal (@mouradrct) February 24, 2019

He also tweeted an old story in which it was alleged that Mehrtens was drunk on television during a Rugby World Cup broadcast.

The Toulon owner’s abuse of the out of form Savea has been widely criticised.

“I’m going to ask for a DNA test. They must have swapped him on the plane [when Savea joined from the Hurricanes last year]. If I were him I would apologise and go back to my home country,” Boudjellal told RMC.

“I’ve told him that he was free to go and wasn’t welcome at Toulon any more.

“When we reach this level of play, we must apologise and leave. I told him he was released and he was no longer welcome in Toulon!”