In 1984, Novès helped Toulouse to their first French Cup title in 37 years, after beating Lourdes 6–0 in the final.

In the 1984–85 French Rugby Union Championship, Toulouse won their eight title, their first since 1947, after topping their Pool in the qualification round, before going onto defeat Bayonne, Béziers and Montferrand to reach the final.

During the 1987/88 season, Toulouse made it to the Quarter-finals of the French Rugby Union Championship, losing to Toulon 21–9.

However, Toulouse did make it to the 1988 Challenge Yves du Manoir final, ironically after defeating Toulon 27–7 in the Semi-finals.

In that time he worked as an assistant coach, taking charge of the backs, where he helped guide Toulouse to the 1988–89 French Rugby Union Championship title a year after he retired from playing.

[2] In his first two seasons in charge, he led his side to back-to-back French Rugby Union Championship titles, after defeating Montferrand 22–16 in 1994 and Castres 31–16 in 1995.

Toulouse topped their pool during the 1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship before making their way to the final, defeating Catalane, Narbonne and Dax en route.

During that season, Toulouse won the inaugural Heineken Cup after beating Welsh side Cardiff 21–18 after extra time.

Despite finishing third on the table after the regular season, Toulouse made it to the final after beating Stade Français 12–9 in the semi's.

On 6 June 2015, Novès coached his last game at Toulouse, losing to Clermont 18–14 in the Quarter-finals of the 2014–15 Top 14 season.

[3] Eight years later, Novès was announced as the next head coach of France, replacing Philippe Saint-André after the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

In the final match of the Championship, England had already secured the title, a win for France would only stop the grand slam.

Unfortunately for Novès, due to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Top 14 organizers did not schedule any games during the pool phase of the tournament, which meant it would end at a later date than normal.

During the 2016 end of year tests, Novès led France to a single victory, beating Samoa 52–8 in the opening week of their November series.

The French Rugby Federation president backed Novès to take France through to the next World Cup.