Id take any cumbrian team, it would be great to have regular trips up there.

A mate of mine (Wakefield fan) went to the The Allotment (GPW Stadium) on a corpo Friday, he got into a conversation with Mr McManus, who hinted strongly that Toulouse will get a franchise, much to his dismay apparently. He reckons that the RFL are blinkered into thinking that they can push into new markets to the detriment of the loyal fans of teams like Leigh, Widnes and the Cumbrians.

The game needs to grow, simple as that. If short changing teams like Leigh and Widnes is the cost of it then sadly that's the case.

widnes stuffed toulouse 70 points plus . There is only one of them two teams deserve to be in SL

Leigh?

RLF have denied this. Official Statement www./news_3337-rfl ... mours.html Sorry if posted elsewere

RLF have denied this. Official Statement www./news_3337-rfl ... mours.html Sorry if posted elsewere

Hell may have just frozen over, but I agree with Deano G.

Another French side, whilst making league in France potentially stronger, will make it worse over here. Crowds will be down all over the place INCLUDING Catalans. We should be pushing to make Catalans widely followed in that region before we start with another French team.

Barrow and Widnes are my favourites to come up with Salford and one other going down. The fact that Cas and Wakey both made the playoffs last year will help them as I fear one of them may have been the other to go. Crusaders would go for me at the moment, but if Wrexham proves to be a success it would have to be Quins.

I agree with Conroy, I'm not sure how much longer the game can support a Quins side failing on and off the field. The crowds are pathetic, Widnes have to be in Super League next time.

I think we need Toulouse in the Super League to improve the French game overall but this bending of the rules is just laughable and typical RFL. I seriously don't understand why they cannot follow their own rules and watch the game thrive on it's own merits.

For me the franchise system is working. We are seeing more youngsters coming through the system, some from teams who previously never bothered, and with nearly every SL side beginning to build/improve their stadia hopefully the crowds will increase also.

For me we should be looking towards a 'Big League' of twenty teams which, over the next decade or so could be entirely possible. The likes of Barrow, Widnes, Leigh, Toulouse, Featherstone & Halifax could all be promoted legitimately and hopefully grow and add something new to the SL but to fast track Toulouse into SL will disillusion heart landers and be detrimental to the game as a whole.

Harlequins have made inroads within their catchment area and are producing local players for the first team. Although I agree the fan base is minimal for the growth of the game and the competitiveness of international rugby league the Quins are a in a key position to move us forward and increase the talent pool.

The whole concept of Harlequins RL has failed though.

I would be happy to put up with them if I saw evidence of improvement, but there isn't any.

Right now I simply want to keep them because they are down south. That is it.

Super league could be a whole lot stronger and I hope we see more and more teams making the cut each time. Widnes simply have to be in though. They would get the crowds and have a great stadium!

Toulouse IMO will be ready next time around, but I don't think they would fail coming in this time.

I'd love to know what Quins are doing to attract fans, are they targeting the RU fans, are they targeting the aussie community (remember Aus v NZ sold out there last season), are they in the schools, do they market the club.

Yes, they are now developing players, which is outstanding work, but are they putting the same effort into putting bums on seats.

I fully expect the only change to SL to be Salford out & Widnes in.

Wakefield & Cas will manage to get a stadium between them, when the reality of being booted out finally hits home.

Crusaders will be establised in 12 months.

Saints will be in a new stadium, which will start to put pressure on KR & Bulls to improve theirs.

Salford despite the delays are apparently very close to finalising their stadium plans and still intend to be in by 2012. If they make an announcement confirming the start of construction before the end of this year, they'll probably be kept in.

Toulouse won't get in as they have to get to a final as confirmed above - can't see that happening. Be interesting how they make room for Widnes who are clearly the strongest of the eligible Championship clubs.

But I'm sure they still would have been bigger than Toulouse - when we went to our game in Toulouse last year, I lost count of the number of French who asked why we were there and didn't actually know what rugby league was (rugby á treize, of course), never mind hear that they had a local club who were going to be in the European League sooner or later.

As mentioned on this thread, there's only so long that clubs will put up with so many home games having minimal away support - to me there's no doubt at all that the lack of atmosphere at games against Catalans, Quins, Crusaders and potentially Toulouse (by this point nearly a quarter of your home games) is affecting crowds.