I'm not suggesting LER is equivalent standard to the Championship across the board, on the whole it's clear the Championship is a stronger league, although the best teams in the LER could compete with any in the Championship. The point is that both are semi-pro leagues. Toulouse moving to the Championship wasn't a step up, it was a sideways move. You talk about players signing for Toulouse to try and win SL contracts, but I can't think of a single player that's been signed from Toulouse to the Dragons, aside from Duport who was wrongly released in the first place. Young players who want to play for the Dragons will surely sign for St Esteve in the LER. Playing in the Championship isn't going to improve players any more than playing in the LER would, neither are elite levels of competition.

Having Toulouse in the Championship was doomed to failure from the start IMO, and persisting with it could cripple the club. Equally, if another club such as Lezignan replaced them, that would equally fail for the same reasons. If these were amateur clubs moving into a semi-pro environment then it would be a different story, but transferring a club from a semi-pro league to another semi-pro league where costs are far, far greater doesn't make any sense at all IMO.

Not long-term, but short to medium term definitely. While I agree with the point about FCL long-term, could the same argument not be applied to Widnes, Fax, Wakey or Cas?

Yes in that they will probably never win the league or be a major contender.

But what I would say most of those clubs could get crowds in excess of the population of Lezignan, and are i suppose bigger, erm, small towns that just make up the comp.

I just think that the big city thing is a good thing in Toulouse favour over Lezignan and the other clubs in the LER.

It's not usually been that way IIRC most LER sides do ok and I would say more often than not beat C1 teams in the challenge cup. When they come up against Championship teams they get beat.

The championship is a far higher standard than the LER to suggest otherwise is nonsense. FCL Carcassone Limoux and Pia could maybe give odd teams a game but other than that, your struggling.



Well, sadly there arent too many young player coming through UTC for the dragons at the moment either, is that indicitive of the lack of good young French players, we would think not, but perhaps they are not quite up to the standard for the Dragons first team yet.

IMO these players could play for ten years in the LER for UTC and no-one would bat an eyelid, some might get lucky when a few injuries come round, but on the whole they will remain very average in the LER.

A loan or a dual reg at Toulouse might help them catch the eye a bit more, in a league of a much higher standard.



It's Irrelevant whether they are elite levels of competition, an amateur playing NWC would improve as a player if he played at NCL, it stands to reason.




I suppose Toulouse has failed in many ways, and I probably agree FCL wouldn't offer us much more on the field and much less off the field, but if another french club, hopefully Toulouse, was given a SL license I would maybe like to see FCL join the Championship after that.



The LER clubs we are talking about here are around about top end of C1 and bottom of the Champ at best, the other clubs are just basically amateurs.

with a half decent coach (Dumas took the job cos' nobody else wanted it due to the pittance being paid by Carlos) TO13 with this squad could easily be a top four Championship side
Dumas is clueless - any blame must rest on his shoulders through his total inadequacy to coach at this level.

TO13 can work at Championship level - it's not rocket science,just basic coaching and professionalism with Leigh the perfect example on how a club can be turned around with these two fundamentals in place.