Whilst for myself, like most Widnes fans,and I,m not of course,I am very surprised Widnes got the result.

Regarding Toulouse they are a big mobile side and cannot be compared to the dross they played at Widnes.

Should franchising be around in 2012 Toulouse will be in and the rest of the Championship clubs know it.

It's not nailed on that no team will get all 3 years exemptions. According to the RFL. Just might kick CC out if their form dos'nt improve and replace them with Too-loose.

CC will fail, no interest in the Area to support Bridgend.
TO will be in.
Cas/Wakey/Salford/HKR will be under threat.
Our job is to be the best we can be and reach a GF or win NRC, so far we have not shown that ambition, we could be keeping our powder dry for next year

Just over 2000 at bridgend against Cas.

2800

2017 according to league express


2857 says league weekly

One of the sillier posts I've read. You cannot say because Widnes only won by 6 against Donny and Tououse thrashed them that Toulouse are a much better side. There are all sorts of variables (Doncaster had three of their best players out against Toulouse). Batley beat Leigh. Leigh beat Widnes. Widnes have beaten teams that have beaten Batley. So who's the best?

Tououse have improved, no doubt about that and are getting crowds. But it is too early to say they will win this league (personally I dont believe they will). But the table tends not to lie over the season. Widnes recruited an unbalanced team with a lightweight pack and PC will do very well to us into the GF. But Barrow, Fax and Fev are the leading conteders at the moment.

Unfortunately?



They & Catalans should be heading up the French league trying to improve the game in their own country rather than taking up space in our leagues.

Well said

Strange league at the moment. A few very poor teams in it this season and it looks like the rest are capable of beating each other. Should be a good tie on Thursday where Fev will be really up for it. As for the standard in the league, weve being saying since the begining that if we can put it together a team will get a right hammering and with 2 70 pointers under our belt already, while only running a 50% completion rate, our coach is predicting we could hit the 100 point mark before the end of the season if we put it together and im inclined to agree with him.

if that is the objective.

if the objective is to improve SKY sports revenue, then 2 french teams in SL is the way to go....

Euh... Not

First, the SL is not English by vocation but European. It was a European project at the start and it is only a pitty that the PSG failed in 96-97. The SL ended up being concentrated on the M62, and regressed in audience in the following 10 years. In France, in a more dramatic fashion, the RL has come close to extinction between 1996 and 2006.

I perfectly understand that some English fans (in particular from teams aspiring to be in SL) may think that French teams are unduly "taking" spots in SL. However, we must see the broad picture. The way to develop the sport is to have a great European competition with teams from England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and France. Only such a competition will be able to compete in the media with football and rugby union. Keeping the SL concentrated over the M62 is jeoparding its future. With French teams will come money from French media (like Orange), a higher level of competition, and certainly a higher level of interest in Southern England.

Then the Championship could also become a second European tier with French teams. This would also be good for the media, and we could have more matches on TV. This would be great for the competition.

The europeanisation of sport competitions is on its way. Association football is likely to adopt a kind of SL format at some point, and the Magners League is getting more European with the inclusion of Italian teams. Here the RL is ahead of other sports and it is a massive advantage to help this sport gain grounds in TV coverage. Ideally we should have in 10 years at least 3 French teams and a Welsh team in SL, 3 French teams in Championship and also an Irish team and a Scotish teams. This would make great competitions, able to compete with rugby union in terms of attendance and media coverage.

I think this somewhat the view of the RFL and for good reasons.

It will eventually end up being a European Super League were the best few teams from around Europe [or England, Wales and France just like their trying to get in football so that league will get all the money and the lower leagues wont get anything as they wont be attractive enough. You dont see the NRL trying to get teams from PNG etc to join.

Unfortunately like everything in sport in the UK whatever SKY says goes.

I was going to add them in saying they are the only team but in NZ defence the country aint big enough to hold more that 2 teams, the sheep will get in the way

But if the appeal of the top competition grows, the appeal of lower competitions may also grow if there is a prospect of promotion. For instance, French are now watching Toulouse matches on TV , they are talking in the press of the Championship, and the number of spectators is growing relative to previous years. If the Championship becomes a second tier competition below the SL, then it will have a bigger appeal than now.

Then the Championship 1 will also be more attractive as it will give the possibility to get into the Championship. I predict a higher number of spectators in the Championship and a better TV coverage. The competition who will lose relatively more is the French Elite 1 who will de facto become a third tier competition. However, even here it will be better than the risk of complete disparition they were heading to.

I often read, on English and French forums that the Dragons and TO aims for SL to improve the French game and that eventually they should/will come back in France. I think it is completely missing the point. The French RL has regressed over 30 years and was on the brink of extinction, there is no way a French professional championship would work within the next 10 years. Then in 10 years we will have a great European competition. I don't see the RFL or the French club deciding to split it in national competitions where both the RFL and the French clubs would lose out in terms of TV coverage, sponsoring money and likely spectators audience.

When has no interest in the area been a criteria , Londons still there.

Hving read comments on the Donny site, I think "hammered" is incorrect. Apparently both teams were awful but Doncaster had no defence. The Dons fans reckon Toulouse are very ordinary.

They stuffed us

They may not have played brilliantly, but they scored 154 points in 3 matches. An ordinary team may be lucky on one match, but on 3 matches in a row like that? It is more likely that there is some quality in this team. I think that Toulouse has demonstrated that it is in the top 6 teams. The next matches against Haven and Barrow at Toulouse will show if it is a top 4 team. If they can beat Haven and Barrow at home, they will demonstrate that they are in the race for a top 4 slot.

Regarding Leigh, I think the team is definitely in contention for a top 6 slot with Haven as the main rival apparently.

The problem with Toulouse at the start of the year was that the French RL blocked them from playing any warm up matches with home teams. So the Widnes match was the first one they had played for some time. Looks like they have a strong team and definitely going to be strong at home in the heat.

The fact they beat Leigh, who are a decent team shows that they are a force to reckon with.

I think it will definitely be one of the games we struggle in and i think we will lose out there.

Well Toulouse has definitely gained some consideration then !

For the moment I still think a Fax win in Toulouse is more likely because Fax has shown that it was almost in a league of its own since the beginning of the season. If Toulouse wins against Barrow and Featherstone at home, and if they take their revenge against Widnes at home, then they would be likely to be favorite for their match at home against Fax. For the moment, wait and see. They could lose several of these matches and not perform as well as the last three matches over the whole season.

Hit the nail on the head there - the point is there is NO prospect of promotion any more, it's been taken away first of all with the decision to move to franchising, and second by the artificial inclusion of expansion teams who meet less of the RFL's own supposed criteria than existing but less fashionable teams. Currently there is still P&R between Chamionship & Chamionship 1, but when the championship becomes full of new & developing expansion teams all competing to be fast-tracked into SL first, that door will be slammed shut as well to protect their status in that division.

We'll have to disagree about a European competition being the way to go about growing the game - eventually, yes, I can see merits, but RL as a whole should have made a priority of putting its own house in order and making sure its member clubs were being run soundly and that all top-level clubs could provide a suitable model of how to operate a RL club, before money was pumped into bringing new European clubs in to try and compete.

And if and when the move into Europe was made, it should have been done as a separate cup competition, preserving the top flight leagues (along with P&R) both in this country and in France. Having the best players & teams in the French league taken away to play in another country's comp can only be detrimental to their own. By preserving the league structure & system in both countries the Union model of a European cup competition could have been explored, while improving standards in both countried simultaneously. Even anti-franchising fans like myself would have been interested in the possibilities of a new competition, as long as the game we know and love (sorry knew & loved) was not ruined in the process.

Well I agree to disagree



I am confident the future will tell that it is the right option. I am firmly against a new european cup. We do not need more and more matches in the agenda. We need one top European competition, as the Super League was initially intended to be. Maybe a second one with the Championship. I must say I am not too much in favour of licensing myself. I think that it removes lots of the interest of lower leagues and gives an unfair advantage to lower teams of the higher competition who can get a rent for several years even in case of poor results. Hopefully, eventually the higher competitions will not be closed. At least I hope that there will be P&R every 2-3 years, I would hope it would be more often. In any case licensing and europeanisation are not logically linked.

Regarding the Cup, there is already a European Cup with the Challenge Cup which is open to clubs from the coutries in Europe playing RL. It would have no history, would be dominated by English clubs like the Challenge Cup and would be pretty much a meaningless addition to the Challenge Cup.

Anyway, my prediction is that in 10 years, Leigh will be playing in a great European Championship with more supporters and more TV coverage, be it SL or the Championship. This is something who would not have happen if the RL had stayed focused on an M62 competition.

In incredibly hot weather I believe, and to be honest, neither Widnes nor Leigh are above "ordinary" at the moment. I am expecting a stuffing when we go there in late July!

God help any team who have to play them in the summer at their place....