SYLVAIN HOULES had no regrets in giving several Toulouse Olympique youngsters an outing in their 46-0 loss at Leeds Rhinos.
Amid some key injury absences, Toulouse fielded six players produced by their youth system including a debut at halfback for Victor Collin.
“We wanted to test the development of our youngsters and they did some good things,” said coach Houles.
“But we didn’t see our attack gelling and that is a reflection on our youth development compared to Leeds, Wigan and the big teams.
“When they put youngsters in you don’t see the difference, but that is good for me to see where they are and they showed some good stuff.
“Defensively Victor did a tremendous job. We need to work on his organisation but it was a good debut for him and we will improve him and that’s exiting.
“We are excited to come here. A lot of French players watch Leeds and it was a dream for us to be part of a Friday night at Headingley in front over 15,000 people.
“That’s what you want to be part of but we would like to have given them a closer game. We get inspired by what they are doing and we learn a lot from it.
“We probably made too many mistakes to be closer on the scoreline, especially when you play a fantastic team like Leeds with their confidence.
“It was a shame (to concede) the try just before half-time. If it had been 12-0 or even better – we missed a great opportunity to make it 12-6 when (Luke) Polselli broke down the middle – that could have given us a lot more hope.
“But the second half was too much pressure for us. To play against Leeds you need to be a lot more clinical than we were today.”