You do have to laugh at the irony of this post, someone who signs off with "King James" calling somebody a moron on a virtual RL chat room.

Regards

Baron Von Binosh

Plus someone whose a fan of a club that lost to both Leigh and Wakefield in consecutive matches.

Toulouse scored two tries to one in their win over Halifax.

Toulouse will win a lot more away games when the weather is drier and when they get their injured stars (Mark Kheirallah, Kuni Minga, Gavin Margueritte, Kane Bentley) back on the field.

He woulnt know, they dont give that info out on Chorley FM

Which is irrelevant because I only listen to Radio Millette 91.8FM – 101.3FM for rugby league broadcasts in the south of France.

Did Toulose have 4 players out?

Yes. The four whom I mentioned.

Star players

Actually they "scored" one, however the ref awarded two

That comment reflects a mean spirit.

Two (2)? Was the ref as bad as Monsieur Alibert used to be?

No Curran or Mika this week due to suspension & a broken hand but have Minga & Bentley back with possibly Kheirallah

Having Minga and Bentley back will be good. But no Gavin Margueritte?

The loss of Curran and Mika is tragic, especially Mika's broken hand. However I think that Toulouse will win easily at home anyway.

Gavin's hammy isn't quite right, should be good to go next week

Not such a big loss with Sangaré waiting for another chance...

What other domestic top leagues are you speaking of?

I don't think you understand just how small rugby league is on the continent.

That was my original point though. Simply adding French teams into UK leagues (regardless of them being called a European SL) will not actually grow the sport in France. 10 years or more of Catalans have proved that point already.

What is needed is to grow the domestic leagues. Having their biggest clubs play in SL actually decreases rather than increases that from happening. We will never have true international matches until then. Putting big teams from France into SL is short termism and is ultimately self defeating. Unfortunately, patience is not accepted in the world today.

My suggestion was a possible way around this, by top teams in domestic leagues competing to get into SL. Sure, it'll take years for the teams to get good enough and there'd be many failures, but it's fair and may inspire domestic leagues to have something to exist for.

& the crowd went wild for [iBest Post in Thread[/i !!!









Class. <genuinely>

I see this argument a lot regarding Catalans, and lately Toulouse and Toronto.

"They need to play in the French league", "we need to grow a French domestic league" etc. It's pie in the sky stuff. If left to "grow" on it's own, it'd take decades at least to bring it up to par with SL. There isn't the money, the interest or the expertise to do it.

What the inclusion of Catalans in SL does for French RL is create interest (media, corporate, fan, participation), creates a pathway for French RL players to earn a living from the sport, attracts investment, sponsors, broadcasters, it brings more money into French RL to invest in grassroots and coaching. It gives other clubs something to aspire to, like Toulouse, like Avignon.

Basically what it does is massively speed up the development of French RL versus the speed it'd have grown if left to it's own devises.

You mention "true international matches". I reckon the France team right now would give England a better game than the team of 10-15 years ago. And that's from one club, who've only had 10 real years to produce players. Imagine in another ten years and Toulouse have done similar whilst Catalans continue to bring players through. That's not short-termism.

I can't disagree with any of your points short term. Only time will tell if this is an impatient boom and bust strategy or the correct way forward to expand the game and not at the expense of the core support.

Unfortunately we may need to wait 10+ years to find out, and I doubt I'll be able to find this post to eat humble pie or say I told you so.

In the interim, I'm going to stick to my own belief and respect your opposing decision.

One parting shot though. Say in ten years there are eight French teams in the various existing leagues, do they continue or start to look at a true French SL? If the stay, does that lead to a decrease in UK based teams?

In ten years there won't be eight French teams in various existing leagues. We'll be very lucky if there are six or even just four.

Well another win at home for Toulouse , but a tight affair by the look of it

For the game against Swinton, Toulouse was without several stars again, this time including international hooker Kane Bentley, powerful Australian loose forward Constantine Mika, and dazzling centre Gavin Marguerite. Fortunately the team was still able to get the job done 36-28.

Top game and superb entertainment for the big crowd. TO were without K Bentley, Marguerite, Greg White, Con Mika and crucially Rhys Curran who has been the most consistent performer over the past few seasons. Houles needed to patch up the left side and for some srange reason played Minga at right cenre, maurel (right winger) on the left wing. The teamwas unbalanced and looked unsure. Andrew Bentley, a solid prop played at loose foward which didn't work and allowed the quick breaks from Murphy and Atkin & co. Saying that, they deserved the win and got the points so well done anyway bu Houles made it dfficult for his team ith some dubious tactics imo.

Another try for Kuni Minga. Is there anywhere that does player stats for the Championship? I would imagine he's top try scorer as things stand, despite missing last week with injury. What is the record number of trys in a season for the Championship?