Hello forum , been a while since my last posting vis a vis toulouse, let me inform you all on whats going on this side of the channel.

Gilles dumas their coach has not a great coaching record, highly unliked by most of the players that have played under him (especially in the french side) he was a cheap option and his assistant is julien gerin, a player from st gaudens that has played a few matches for the french side but by no means is a good visionary product, the choice has been ridiculed in many circles and as they are two good friends i feel his imput will be some what silenced, A qualified cone pikeruppera is all he`ll be there.

They had some quality french players unavailable because of work commitments, so they should be a lot better at home, the players that work were offered paltry fulltime contracts and laughed at the amount being offered and kept their jobs. But on the whole the squad is weak , inexperienced and typical of any french rugby league side, some good frenchies,some good imports and lots of question marks on the rest , if the australians get injured it could be a very long year indeed.

They have one player who has never even played before , he`s a handballer , a big unit but their hoping he can pass with two hands.

Now i would love to be able to say , yes they will get a lot better, yes they will dispute a final but the reality in france is that the resources aren`t there, the catalans are ok but there are far to many australians there, in this weeks team there are 7 aussies in it, carlaw and ryles are out but would normally be in so that would make 9. I can tell you that the french catalan supportes are already seriously bagging, walters, perry and bell,

Affaire a suivre.

Catalans already have a reserve team in the Elite that are if anything better than Toulouse, so makes no sense to ship them 100 miles away to to Toulouse, just to bail out a struggling club who are playing in the wrong league. I've said it before but Carcassonne, Lezignan and Limoux are all easily better than Toulouse and all within the Aude region so if anywhere could sustain a Championship team it is there and not Toulouse

I agree with bowes, these aude clubs are better but like all french clubs they only have 17 good players , the squad depth in france is a problem.

On some french forums they have hinted at one day lezignan,carcassonne and limoux merging to contest the division one in england. The problem is that these clubs hate each other and to truly get everyone to agree would be something.

The team would be very good and would be up there on the table, in fact it would sort of be a rep side from the aude region. They would need to be to really test the stronger english clubs.

The idea is good, the reality is that it might need to happen to save rugby league in this historicaly strong league area.