Guess you did not go to the game today bazz judging by your late updates of the score, unless the wifi is crap in Toulouse


Wakefield v Hull KR att. 6874. It won't keep us in SL we'll have to rely on the quality of our football to rely on that, you might bare that in mind before embarrassing yourself again, it's the football that counts not the attendance.

Neither do Toulouse's usual home games, anyway great win by them....I am pleased !!

Cracking result for Toulouse and a huge dent in Toronto's "procession to Super League".
Well done and a victory for a proper RL club. They even have French players in their side.

I don’t get this argument, how could Toronto have Canadian players of the right standard yet?

They played Batley the other week, who had no homegrown players either yet there was no criticism of them?

No English players ....blimey ?

Ah this is where you're hiding.

Come over to the Catalans-Salford thread and take your punishment like a man....

Understandable they're all playing in the NRL

Exactly. 99% of super league teams don’t have the right standard of international players bar saints and Warrington.

They had no homegrown players whatsoever in their team. Neither did Toronto. Yet only Toronto are criticised for it.

Perhaps I should ask when Toronto will be in a position to field ANY "local" players ??
Batley have "produced" players that have gone on to play SL, indeed, there are some still playing



It is highly unlikely that with the way Toronto have been formed and planted like a tree in a desert, that they will be in a position to develop any of their own players.
They certainly missed an opportunity in League 1, where they could have played some rookies as they were smashing every side in their path but, that boat has now sailed and assuming that they gain promotion, which should be a formality with their huge spend on overseas players, this will make having any home grown talent even less likley.

Some people see the likes of Tronoto as a blueprint for the future of the game but, the reality is that they are UTTERLY reliant on other clubs doing the hard yards for them, without being in a position to put ANY players back into the game.

Some would dismantle half of SL and wish for clubs in New York, Paris, Toronto, Denver etc without them having any organic roots which, far from expanding the game, I personally believe that it could completely destroy it.

Having said that, Toronto have shown the way as regards marketing and promoting the game and "we" could desperately do with people of that calibre market the game and they (Toronto) have generated some exposure, which is desperately needed but, really, what is the plan long term, assuming that there actually is a plan ?

I see what your doing here, but worrying about Batleys lack of home grown players shouldn't stop you focusing on your own club's problems

My own clubs problems will get sorted, our fans just need to learn a bit of patience and to accept we can’t win every year.

I get frustrated however at the bitterness often shown toward any non-heartland club in RL. The “there shouldn’t be any foreign clubs”, “they’re taking heartland clubs money”, “the RFL are helping them at the expense of heartland clubs” arguments are rife and consistent and then the delight and glee on display when they lose. These are often the same people who wonder why there aren’t more people with big money in RL backing clubs.

Wrencat in his latest post puts some reasonable concerns about when Toronto will be able to develop homegrown players. It will be some time. Yes they could have played 1 or 2 in League 1. That wouldn’t suddenly have turned them into Championship standard players and then another year or 2 in the Championship wouldn’t have turned them into SL standard players. They need to setup local roots as he rightly says. Well that takes a lot longer than 3 years and certainly takes longer than that to produce any quality players from it. However Batley have had 100+ years to do that and aren’t producing any at the moment. Someone said there are some Batley products playing in SL, I’m struggling to think of any.
This isn’t an anti-Batley post or criticism. Well not solely them. They are the same as the vast majority of British clubs below SL. Some people sometimes ask what benefits clubs like Toronto bring over British clubs. But I look at many British clubs and see these zombie clubs producing very little, sometimes nothing, for the sport and just staggering on from year to year.

I thought that you would be familiar with Walmsley (he's at Saints

) and Keegan Hirst (at Trinity) and they're just from the top of my head and of course any top players that they do develop would move on to SL clubs etc.
The point is that new clubs, dropped in to new non RL playing territories and without a network of junior rugby are 100% reliant on the rest of the RL world to provide their players and whilst it's admirable that a group of very wealthy investors want a RL side in their city, the questions over the long term future of the game in these places is massively worrying and its absolutely essential that there is some structure underneath.
It's like having the bowl full of cherries but no cake underneath and it needs both.

Aside from that the logistics with travel and climate make it impossible for clubs to play a balanced fixture program and again, this is not a one off (as it would be if there were ground improvements, it's always.
Dont get me wrong, it's great to be taking their home games on the road but, the cost for them, especially in the long term, makes this venture even more financially risky.
OK they will very likely get their hands on a slice of the SL TV cash but, while ever they exist, it just wont be enough and will necessitate huge subsidy .
Interestingly, if there were another 3/4 clubs over there, the level of subsidy would reduce but, at what cost to the domestic game in the UK.
Toulouse are the polar opposite.
They are in a RL heartland, with junior development etc although they would be battling with Catalan for the signatures of any up and coming French youngsters.

Sam Wood was born in Dewsbury so they had at least one !

Hirst was signed by Batley elsewhere and Walmsley played about half a season for Batley if I remember having joined from his uni side. I hardly think we can call that player development.

You are never ever going to get a network of amateur clubs spring up in places like North America without a pro club to provide the impetus. It’s never going to happen. We have to do it the other way around as soccer has done. But it’s daft to suggest that after 2.5 years a club would have a fully functioning player production system. If in 10 years time we’re still seeing no progress then yes it’s an issue. But not now. Right now the issue is why are established heartland clubs providing no players, fans or sponsors to the sport. Whatever failures Toronto have at the moment pale into insignificance compared to the massive, crippling failures that are our heartland clubs.

Here are the highlights of Toulouse's 46-16 defeat of Toronto, in front of over 6,000 French fans. (Pity that the cameraman missed the actual scoring of the first of Stanislas Robin's two tries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 6XiVvcJOSM

Here are the highlights of Toulouse's 46-16 defeat of Toronto, in front of over 6,000 French fans. (Pity that the cameraman missed the actual scoring of the first of Stanislas Robin's two tries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 6XiVvcJOSM

Quote ="JEAN CAPDOUZE"Here are the highlights of Toulouse's 46-16 defeat of Toronto, in front of over 6,000 French fans. (Pity that the cameraman missed the actual scoring of the first of Stanislas Robin's two tries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 6XiVvcJOSM'" Have you got the highlights of Catalans v Salford? I'm on mi holidays and havn't seen it yet.

Quote ="JEAN CAPDOUZE"Here are the highlights of Toulouse's 46-16 defeat of Toronto, in front of over 6,000 French fans. (Pity that the cameraman missed the actual scoring of the first of Stanislas Robin's two tries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 6XiVvcJOSM'" Have you got the highlights of Catalans v Salford? I'm on mi holidays and havn't seen it yet.

Finally someone has said it. Toronto stink the TV out weekly.Im sick of them already.

It's a debatable point what constitutes "player development". Pretty much every player that joins a professional RL club will have spent time playing previously the game either at an amateur level, or perhaps in an educational establishment. The problem for clubs below SL is that they'll always find it difficult to keep hold of young stars in the making as there'll always be the lure of SL to tempt them away.

Some clubs run reserves, and others have academy teams, both of which can help develop players. However, a lot of players will move between a number of clubs before establishing themselves, and it's probably arguable which of those clubs did most to "develop" them.

Anyway, well done to TO for their win yesterday, as well as the support they managed to get into the ground to watch it. It wasn't played at their usual 4,000 capacity stadium - did make a special push for this one - well done regardless. The Championship looks like being a belter of a competition again this year, with 8 teams looking like they'll be battling for the top 5 spots at the moment.

Quote ="JEAN CAPDOUZE"Here are the highlights of Toulouse's 46-16 defeat of Toronto, in front of over 6,000 French fans. (Pity that the cameraman missed the actual scoring of the first of Stanislas Robin's two tries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 6XiVvcJOSM'" HERE YOU GO BAZZA [urlhttps://youtu.be/YYC67xCfyCQ[/url

Quote ="JEAN CAPDOUZE"Here are the highlights of Toulouse's 46-16 defeat of Toronto, in front of over 6,000 French fans. (Pity that the cameraman missed the actual scoring of the first of Stanislas Robin's two tries): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... 6XiVvcJOSM'" HERE YOU GO BAZZA [urlhttps://youtu.be/YYC67xCfyCQ[/url

Wrong game. Wrong thread. This thread is about Toulouse's magnificent victory.

Duplicate

It was you that mentioned Salford first...

it was coming Bazza from a team that just scraped past Dewsbury which game did you go to Baz ? or were there no flights out of Kingsford Smith airport ?

TWP scraped past Dewsbury, who Fax beat 26-0 yesterday (Fax finally got themselves out of 1st gear). Watched the highlights and TO looked very good in the second half. TWP play Batley next, followed by Fax, Sheffield, Barrow and Featherstone. 5 tough games and if they're still top of the pile after them they'll take some stopping.

TO's season will depend on how well they travel, particularly if they suffer injuries to key players.