The Phantom Horseman

Looking at the Toulouse squad - Jake Shorrocks and Olly Ashall-Bott, who are key players for them, returned last week against Halifax, and Lacans is back after missing the Halifax game, but they are missing Anthony Marion who is another important player for them. They're also missing Joe Cator as well as long-term absentees such as back row Dom Peyroux and hooker Callum Gahan. Their squad is still pretty good though and they should be able to put out a decent 17. Temperature forecast to be between 24 degrees and 28 degrees at kick off depending on what site you look at, but guaranteed to be a warm one.

Ah, ok, you are right to be wary of them, they are invariably scammers! The 247 streams I have paid for have been fine and worth the £10 in my view.

I can't see us naming Moran if he isn't back with us.

I know, I saw that, though it was strange that they had recalled him but he couldn't get into their 21-man squad.

He's in the Fev squad for Saturday's game at Toulouse.

Yes, Moran confirmed as in the squad

What evidence do you have for saying this? 247.tv have been the chosen platform for a number of Championship teams to live-stream games this season, including Bradford, Widnes and London, I've bought 2 or 3 live streams from them and they've all been fine.

Meaning what?

We'll have to wait to see if this is confirmed when the club posts the squad on its socials, but on the RFL website match centre, Moran is included in our 21 for this week.

Oldham's progress over the last couple of years has been terrific, but if it's come to this, we'd basically just be auctioning off places in SL wouldn't we? Oldham were a Grade C club ranked 27th in the IMG rankings last year with a score of just 7.0 points, I think anyone bar the most frenzied of fans would acknowledge they need a bit more time to grow organically. The line from their chairman that would particularly worry me about their offer to fund themselves is this one..."We would need something back from that and some assurances and everything else, which is why things are still up in the air."

I know the rugbyleagueontv website has it listed as being on YouTube but I just wanted confirmation from the actual source ie Toulouse. If it's only on ViaOccitanie we might need a VPN to watch it.

Where is this advert out of interest? That's just a link to Toulouse's generic YouTube page.

Someone asked that on the Blue Wall Voice Facebook page and Terry Mullaney provided the answer: Unfortunately the Club's videographer isnt available this weekend so the game wont be streamed to the Clubhouse There is usually a YouTube stream available for Toulouse home games and if so we will post the link on the Blue Wall Voice Group It will definitely be shown on https://viaoccitanie.tv/ and possibly on Toulouse's YouTube channel as well.

It's worth pointing out that that's exactly what had happened the previous season, when Fev made some huge signings and spent lots of money, only to run into Leigh, who spent even more and whose signings worked out better (unsurprisingly as it was the year of Asiata, Amone, Lam, Ipape, O'Donnell, Ferguson etc.

They did have the significant advantage of having a bye week the week before ( whereas we had played York), so it perhaps wasn't surprising that they had more energy than us, they're a full time team and all their focus would have been on that game for the previous 2 weeks.

I like the idea of playing "Josh" at centre and "Hardcastle" at back row, he does sometimes play with the energy of two men! Seriously though I think Day will start at back row if fit and then the call is probably between Akauola and Wilde on the bench, with Akauola having the bigger upside and Wilde the safer bet. Only other thing I'd say is I'm not sure how far off being fit Williams is, but this would be a tough game to make his return.

So after what turned out to be straightforward wins against Barrow and Hunslet, back to what is clearly a much tougher proposition. Toulouse have been vulnerable at times this season, especially away from home, but they outplayed us at our place and will be eager to bounce back after losing at Halifax last week. It's become increasingly clear as the season has gone on that our chances depend on whether we can achieve something close to parity (or better) in the arm wrestle/collisions/ruck area. If we do we have the ability amongst our half backs to give anyone a game, but when we get rolled up the middle, we tend to get beaten. Toulouse are strong in contact and have good line speed, and if we come off a clear second best in that respect, we'll probably lose again. It must be said we didn't have either Springer or King in the home game against them, and they may help us be more competitive in the middle of the field this time, we only had 1 recognised middle on the bench in that game. There's a tough decision to be made regarding Siti. They ran at him repeatedly in the early stages of the home fixture and he only lasted 12 minutes, but he finally got in some significant playing time against York and Barrow and in the latter game he was a real handful. You'd like to think he'll be itching to play, and if he can repeat the form he showed against Barrow that would be a big boost for us. Elsewhere, Day will probably be back in contention, and there are some difficult decisons to be made in the threequarters, especially if Hardcastle moves back to centre, with Wynne, Gale and Olpherts all vying for a spot on the wing. It's meant to be in the mid-30s in Toulouse tomorrow, but "only" around 26 or 27 degrees on Saturday, which is still plenty hot enough if you ask me. This is a winnable game if we can get on top in the physical battle, but that's a tough ask. Fun fact: didn't realise thismyself until recently, but we are now the 2nd top scorers in the league (behind York). Didn't expect that when we were struggling with no half backs earlier this season.

No, but I completely got why we did it in 2023. It wasn't "sensible", but it was a clear risk/reward strategy that, unfortunately for Fev, didn't pay off.

Absolutely, and Wakefield's recruitment for their Championship year was pretty exceptional too, not quite at the Leigh level but they nailed all their overseas signings. Those 2 years were the exception not the norm.

Like the guy who's already ploughed all this month and next month's rent into a fruit machine - "one more go, it's going to pay out the jackpot, I know it". ??? Leigh had been relegated the previous year not promoted.

Been a while since I've been referred to as a "lad" Yes, Harry seemed to think that Fev should have just plunged themselves further and further into debt, despite being told repeatedly that the club was already over-stretching itself. He was totally wrong then and of course he's totally wrong now, it was in a way understandable that the club went so hard after promotion because the introduction of the IMG scoring system meant an end to any chance Fev had of promotion, at least under that system. The club will be in debt for a long time after the ill-fated spending spree to try and get into SL on what seemed at the time to be the final opportunity. If Fev had spent even more they could still have lost a one-off game in the play-off, sometimes no matter how much you spend the seemingly unthinkable can happen, you'd think Harry would have learned this from Leigh in 2018.

I don't know the answer to that specific question (maybe it will be shown in the clubhouse, not sure), but Toulouse have streamed all their home games this season either on their YouTube channel or on viaoccitane.tv and are already advertising it on the latter (see link below) On some occasions you have neded to use a VPN to view it in this country (the viaoccitane broadcasts I think). https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1342985257826978&id=100063465496698&set=a.736765041782339

Get with the programme Gav, it's now 8 minutes since Aaron Bower provided his take on things...

Looks like this thread might not last quite as long as the IMG one(s) then...though who knows https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/news/super-league-14-team-decision-1266321 "after strong opposition to plans for a 14-team league next year, a 12-team competition in 2026 now appears to be the direction of travel"