As is often said, when you’re at the top there is only one place to go from there, but Ugo Mola doesn’t necessarily believe that heading downwards has to be the outcome.
The long-serving Toulouse coach carries the belief that his squad can elevate themselves further while also recognising that fortunes can alter in the blink of an eye unless there is constant vigilance and self-awareness of frailty.
Central to the club’s philosophy is that they possess an in-built drive and gnawing hunger to get better and achieve more which is some going following on from last season’s European and domestic double, the second time they have achieved such a feat since 2021.
It’s also worth pointing out that they have won the last two Top 14 titles and are well intent on making it a hat-trick.
And yet for all their apparent strength — and wealth — there is always a lurking danger of apathy or atrophy setting in, perhaps even in an unseen way.
“What allows you to win becomes obsolete the day you win,” Mola recently explained to the French media.
“We have to continue to work, question ourselves and accept the emulation that is fierce at Stade Toulousain.
“We have one of the three best hookers in the world, and yet he doesn’t start every game.
“Competition kills your partner, but emulation pulls him up.
“Here, it is a lions’ cage,” Mola said in relation to the competitive ferocity that burns so bright at Stade Ernest-Wallon.
“I like the example of the lions’ cage,” he continued, giving greater clarity.
“They don’t attack each other as long as they recognise each other. As soon as there is a weaker one, it is dead.
“At Stade Toulousain, it’s the lions’ cage. If I take Antoine Dupont and his friend Paul Graou, they are pulling each other out. Come to a kicking session, it’s fierce.
“Stade Toulousain’s worst enemy remains Stade Toulousain.
“It is my role and my obsession to avoid it.”
So, the club have moved on from last season and their intention is to constantly evolve and not permit anything to dilute what their overall philosophy is based around: addressing what it is to be successful and then achieving it.
Mola has an explanation for that as well.
“I notice that the season in which we have had the most comfort is 2021-2022.
“(That was) the one where we didn’t win anything, even though we were coming off a double.
“We put everything on the table and the main question was, ‘At what level and for how long are we willing to make efforts to be able to win new titles?’
“My role has evolved a lot in this sense: to be vigilant at the slightest personal or collective failure in order to be able to fight with all our weapons.
“In the end, it is an eternal restart. When you win often, the most difficult thing is to find the energy you need to get back on track.”
Ulster face an unenviable mission.