Toulouse come face to face with Batley for the second time this season, following their 44-6 win in the opening round of the Championship – and Bulldogs coach Matt Diskin says he’s looking forward to seeing his side attempt to right that particular wrong on Saturday afternoon in the Challenge Cup.
“We were really excited when we watched the draw and found out we’d face them again, it gives us an opportunity to right a wrong from earlier this year,” Diskin said.
“Toulouse are a very good team and when we went out there before our preparation was good but we got caught cold. Hopefully there’ll be no surprises for us this time.
“The Challenge Cup is a prestigious competition for anybody. Myself and most of the players will probably remember watching it on the BBC with our grandparents.
“It’s a fantastic event and for us to be part of it is great but there’s no point just being part of it for the sake of it. We really want to compete and progress as far as we can and that starts on Saturday.”
The French side are currently unbeaten at their home ground this season and coach Sylvain Houles is hoping to maintain this on Saturday and ensure progression to the next round.
“We played Batley in the opening round of the season and despite the score it was a really difficult game. They’re a good team and we know they’re going to come out here this weekend and try to test us.”
In 2016, Toulouse beat then fellow League 1 side University of Gloucestershire All Golds at this stage of the tournament and went on to defeat Leigh Centurions 10-8 in Round 5 to reach the sixth round.
Houles continued: “Last year we had a good run in the competition but this year is a little bit different. We’re now involved in the Championship and that’s a tougher competition and this weekend it’ll be good for us to be able to test the depth of our squad.
“Some of our young boys are probably going to be making their debut and it’s really exciting to see how they’re going to play.
“The Challenge Cup is a knock out game, we have experience of those type of games and we like to play them. We’re really looking forward to it and hopefully we’ll come up with the win.”
