What was the exact crowd?

Early doors yet surely.

Toulouse do not look physically big enough and are so off the pace defensively it was pretty worrying. However this is a huge step up for some of their players who will not be used to this sort of intensity. They can only get better I suppose, and I'm sure they will. They know what they need to improve on now (a lot of things) and can build on that over this season and next. That's the beauty of not being able to be relegated, there's no need to panic.

As for Widnes: excellent. Attacking flair. Defensively strong. Good territory. Good amount of possession. They just looked like they were doing everything right. Toa Kohe-Love their only weak link, giving away penalty after penalty. They're looking good on the park, the crowd was big, stadium looks fantastic, they've got English coaching staff, a lot of talented young English players, good sponsorship and are run well. They look like a SL side in the Championship at the moment. They have a lot of obstacles to overcome as a heartlands club if they want to get into the SL, and if they continue in this vein then they can't be turned down for 2012.
Can Halifax and Leigh top that? We'll see. This competition is looking good!

Think I'll take that line as well, but they're going to have to show a hell of a lot of improvement if they're going to be anything other than a bottom three side.

Not sure i comprehend. Licence applications start from scratch and there'll be plenty of other "heartlands" clubs going through the same process.

Bit of confusion there. Sporting Life site gives it as 1,700

Sky gave it as 5016 or something - I only glanced but it was definitely 5k+

Just over 5000 there I believe. A very good attendance considering there will have been little/no away support.

Very impressive from Widnes. They looked a well drilled outfit and it was a great team performance from 1-17. Scott Yates and Paddy Flynn are they from the Widnes academy?

Toulouse didn't look up to speed. A poor pre-season will not have helped but they can't use that as an excuse. Widnes were very good but they have a lot of work to do. But it is too early to make rash judgements about their worth in the championship.

Yeah it was something like that.

Toulose's kit looked horrible... it looked baggy & heavy it was hanging of everyone of their players excpet for their hooker...

You know more than most on here what this division has to offer (most Leigh-Fax games, for a start!) so let's concentrate what we have now rather than what might be in 2012

Free tickets out in force at Widnes again I see. It was only last season when they were writing to league express saying how they don't need such 'gimmicks' to pull in a decent crowd.