So surely we should accept that Toulouse will have some players already that they could use in SL, along with a few new ones, if of course they get the chance

Actually there's 10 players in the Widnes squad who played in the championship 10 players is a big part of a 30 man squad, so they've signed 19 players and loaned 1 in 2 years, Toulouse would have to go out and buy a full 30 man squad as currentely there not even good enough to play championship rugby.

As we established earlier, 1 game isnt enough to compare clubs in different competitions

Also Widnes were only mid table Championship, so why are you so confident Toulouse would need a completely new squad?

I'm sorry, bringing in twice as many as they've retained (including I'm assuming youth players are included in that figure of 10?) isn't buying a new squad? Never mind that a good half of those they've retained are just depth players.

Seriously, any new team moving to full time have to bring in what amounts to a full first team, with the youth they already have.

If I were a fan of a SL club, I wouldn't have "expected" my team to be held scoreless (and never looked like scoring) for over 50 minutes, or for the scores to be level with 16 minutes remaining. the game could very easily have gone either way.

You are correct.



You are incorrect.

Toulouse will have to have the money to buy SL standard players if their applcation for a license is to be successful. They will buy 8 Antipodeans and then the cream of the French Elite competition to go with 4 or 5 of their current squad. It would basically be a whole new squad, two thirds French, and it might create havoc with the low level English clubs.

So as u said you'd have to buy near enough a full squad, that's what I said! How do you know Toulouse will have the money for that? Where will the funds come from? Will you have the supporters to bring in the income? Because the RFL haven't got a pot to in so don't be relying on them for support. I don't think any team will be worried about Toulouse if they came into Super League either.

The funds will come from sponsors, who will include the city of Toulouse, and private corporations. Toulouse has a lot more public and private wealth available, especially from the aerospace industry, than any English town could dream of.

The issue of supporters is a separate one. We only have the experience of Catalans to go by. And we saw how the Catalans went from home crowds of 1,000-1,500 before it became professional, to crowds averaging over 6,000 in its first year! Toulouse should be able to match that and more because it has a bigger population base than Catalans has, and because it has the suppport of the Mayor and even the powerful Toulouse rugby union club, which wasn't the case in Perpignan (where the rugby union club, USAP, tried to sabotage the rugby league club's games with petty nastiness).

CC teams are only allowed 1 quota player.

if all this is true why did Toulouse perform so badly in the championship and pull in crowds of less than a 1000

Toulouse performed badly in the Championship because of the fact that they had to travel every other weekend, and most of the players were part timers with other jobs. The English clubs had no air travel to contend with other than the 1 trip to Toulouse.

Toulouse failed to attract large crowds in the Championship (sometimes much more than 1,000 though) because they were not playing well (the coach Gilles Dumas was and is not up to modern standards) and because they were not a full time professional club. Same problem Catalans faced in terms of crowds before they joined Super League.

Salford are buying a whole new squad next season so they'd be no different to you lot really

Which "8 anitpodeans" would Toulouse or any other club buy? Unless they were to breach the salary cap you mean 8 reserve grade players I assume.

Players of the calibre of Clint Greenshields, Lopini Paea, Jason Baitieri, Darryl Millard, Damien Blanch, Scott Dureau, Steve Menzies, Zeb Taia, Louis Anderson, and Brent Webb. Some fringe players in an NRL squad of 25-30, some reserve team players. But if these choices are astute, as they were with Trent Robinson, often the fringe or reserve player can blossom in France. We have shining examples of this in Scott Dureau and Jason Baitieri.

So NRL reserve players. I'm sure the 'right ones' can do a job, but given the record across SL, I'd say if you picked any 8 reserve graders from the NRL you'd be lucky to hit 50% success.