Good win for Toulouse. Always hard to go to places like fev, Bradford, Wakefield etc because it's like going back in time 30 years and is a massive culture shock so kudos to Toulouse on getting the W

Regards

King James

Magnificent win by Toulouse in the alien environment of 1950s Bigfellas Stadium, playing under a Lithuanian referee.

Well done Toulouse , any win at Fev for any club is a good one , still a long way to go

Toulouse is now placed second on for and against. But the top four seems pretty clear already. Barring major run of injuries at any of these clubs, it is looking like Hull KR clear first, followed by Toulouse, London and Featherstone (not necessarily in that order).

Hull KR have a real chance of promotion this year (probably at the expense of Widnes), but if another of what will turn out to be the bottom 4 Super League clubs has a drop in performance, I think Toulouse and London have an outside chance, but still a chance, of getting a second promotion spot. Toulouse would obviously have to be at full strength in the Middle 8s for that to happen.

Which other SL club do you think may drop out?

Catalan Dragons?

Jean, the top 4 in the Championship have hardly pulled clear of the pack and you are being disingenuous towards Rochdale and Halifax who will be keeping up the pressure on the current Top 4.
Tbf, the comp is almost pointless as Hull KR will top the pile and at the moment are the only club capable of challenging in the Middle 8's, Toulouse may get their chance next season, if they can win the "overseas" battle with Toronto.
With those 2 clubs likely to challenge and with talk of a change in structure already starting, with "pressure" again on clubs to improve facilities and attendances, we could well see a return to "franchising", which, if the game is serious about expansion, is the only sensible option.

The RFL should be going along to Sky and proposing such a change and demanding an increase in funding, which would allow SL to increase to 14 clubs but, instead of "selling the sport" and gaining some positive publicity, we are more likely to end up with a fudged change.

How would you know Jimbo you've never been

Did you enjoy the game yesterday Jean? If i would have known you would have been there I'd have bought you a pint.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that more than one Champ side could get promoted during the mid 8s.

The bottom SL teams would need to be really bad for that to happen though - I'm looking at you Widnes and Huddersfield - at least on current form. I don't think the Warrington crisis will be allowed to continue much longer.

You just can't help yourself can you, Toulouse get a win and you have to sneak a derogatory remark(s) about the home team.

Pathetic

I never mentioned the home team, only their ground.

Not sure at the moment.

Which is perfectly fine , comprising all round views of the pitch and doesn't require temporary seating like the Catalan stadium

From what I've seen Jonno Ford would go very well in SL. Minga the winger likewise, I'd like to see more of their two starting props but they looked very good yesterday too. They're a good team.

Johnno has improved a lot in the last two seasons, after becoming fairly predictable. His all round game is better and is much more influential in defence than before. Minga didn't get much of the ball on the wing yesterday but his strong runs from the middle worried Fev. Canet is a good young prop who is improving all the time after losing his head a few times last season. Boyer is a quality prop who never seems to have a bad game.

This is all good. However don't you think that Toulouse needs one or two big Antipodean forwards -- including at least one prop -- of NRL or near-NRL quality, in order to make progress towards promotion into Super League? Leigh did this when they signed Fui Fui Moi Moi. That Toulouse wants to promote French players is admirable, but even one big and experienced Antipodean prop or loose forward might add a little extra punch to the Toulouse forward attack.

They're holding their own for now. Maybe they'll draft players in if/when they make the middle 8s.

Isn't there a June 30 deadline for new signings, or is that just the NRL rule?

Does anyone know the current capacity of Toulouse's stadium and the number of permanent seats it has?

Currently 4k all-seater I think.

However, I believe they'll move back to the Stade Des Minimes once the renovation work is complete, which will then be a 10k ground.

There's also the Ernest-Wallon which the RU play at, 19.5k capacity, and has held RL matches in the recent past.

cheers for the info.

Think the deadline for signings for the middle 8s is something crazy like just before the last week of the regular season

It depends on who you talk to but there are supposed to be ongoing talk about DR with Catalans in the future. Money is tight at TO so there won't be any costly antipodeans coming in. The starting props have been awesome and are getting better as they learn more at this level and Hepi has been superb so far this season. I believe the current squad is good enough to do well this season IF they can keep their key players injury free, but that's probably true of many Championship sides. Anthony Marion and Andy Bentley have done well when alternating at loose forward.

I thought that Carlos Zalduendo had attracted a lot of actual or potential sponsors to Toulouse. Or is that no longer applicable?

The problem is that if Toulouse does not get promoted this season, as the second Championship side along with Hull KR (and I know that this dual promotion will require the unlikely demise of at least two Super League teams), next year Toulouse will be competing with not only one full time recently demoted Super League club (probably Widnes) but also the Toronto Wolfpack. Toronto is very well funded, and therefore a better prospect for promotion to Super League than Toulouse. In other words Toulouse's chances of getting promoted to SL are better in 2017 than they will be in 2018 -- unless the club in 2018 can afford to, and decides to, import just a little bit of Antipodean forward firepower.