kiggy

One thing to also bear in mind is that it costs a fortune to employ someone in France. For instance, if I earned 50K gross, I would pay around 25K in Tax/NI as an employee, the employer would pay an equal amount in employee taux de cotisations. And don't get me started if you are self-employed !! It could be why their costs seem to so high in comparison to a UK based club

The 1st team do get the lions share but Toulouse have spread themselves many teams which accounts for more of the cost. Player wages are not that high though, they rely on sponsors to help out with other costs, cars/accommodation etc. I know when they were in SL the backroom staff don't get paid anywhere near the same as their peers at other clubs. As for the off season, they had sights on quite a few players but very few wanted to play in France...even the French players preferred to go to the UK.

Do you have a link where I can see what each club spends on players? Even I don't know the individual spend on player budget at TO. I know the overall budget is around 3.4m, but that includes everything from the top team down through the rugby schools, so Elite, U19, U17 etc. Halifax are a top 6 side so I wouldn't worry too much just yet, half a season to go still. It was nice for Bernard to see a win in his final game in charge of the club.

I agree, I don't like bringing players in for a match it doesn't work. I thought Halifax were very bright today, quick, up for it, using the width of the pitch well. Couple of lucky plays, ball off the post etc. but all in all, the plucky amateur side only just losing out to the fully professional french outfit.

It's not....it's not quite the same as a corporate box at Old Trafford ! But we got the tickets free anyway so I can't complain.

When they do travel, then yes, as an ensemble they only train together for those 2 days. Certain players, those that are injured/recovering, get a more extensive plan over the week but that will be in isolation to the others. Those weeks that they had no matches they would have spread the training over 3 days. They have individual tailored plans for the most part, which includes team time.

How often to part time teams train? When they have away matches TO only train Tuesday and Thursday. So a lot of 2 day weeks for a while now. Another question, if he is part time, how has he managed to get a load of time off work to ###### off to the south of France for 6 months?

Shame about Harvie Hill, he was very promising and would have been great for TO if he had stayed more than a couple of matches

Not very optimistic to be honest, TO play 5th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the next 4 games. They could very well be still on 14pts come the end of June.

Has Norman still got some games to miss for his ban?

I think TO have lost even more 1st team players, so I would be astounded if they won this. But I did say on one thread that they would win all their home games 2nd half of the season, and we haven't got there yet.

That aged well! My wife's nephew tried to book 3 tickets together and couldn't. So I have no idea what planet the stadium booking software was on as it wasn't planet earth. We got him 3 tickets with us in corporate hostility in the end, so he didn't even need to buy the tickets.

Good résumé of the day...totally wrong on the Toulouse fans though. There were at least 28 of us.

We should have been there for 2 and half matches but with the traffic problems we only saw 1 and a bit, not all York's fault, just the general M62 bank holiday car park. Didn't take part in the fan zone so can't comment on that. There are good links to the city centre with the park and ride so it didn't matter about where the ground was for us, and there is enough around the ground to keep you fed. Just not enough people for my mind. Fev and York fans made a noise but that was about it. Good for us as a family as it gave my 3 boys a rare chance to meet up. Blackpool is still our favourite Bash venue though.

I was quite disappointed at the lack of a crowd. You could have probably got everyone in to the East stand. Maybe the Summer Bash has run it's course

When you only start with 20 it is

Paul Marcon starting at full back for TO. Very patched up side for today.

M61-m62 solid too. 4hrs from Blackpool today. Mrs Kiggy sick all the way so will miss the match.

I prefer Blackpool as a neutral venue, as my mum still lives in St Annes so a win-win for me. We are in Blackpool today funnily enough but heading for York early tomorrow for the full day.

I would much rather they field a team of their own Elite players, even if they are lesser players. I'm not a fan of duel registration as I think it weakens the team, unless they have a loan period of a month and actually train with the team. Scimone is a case in point, he played last time but never trained with the team before.

London should beat Toulouse this time, TO don't have 13 fit so will have to rely on Elites or Catalan fringe players.

Batley played well, although TO didn't... apparently. Missed Shorrocks who pulled out on the Saturday morning. Interesting stat I was told today. Batley didn't give away a single penalty, knock on or six-again in the whole 80 minutes. Isn't that some sort of record?

Not really related but I read somewhere the U19 semi final was decided on a red card?

Yes

Still 2nd tonight...maybe 3rd after tomorrow. The last few weeks have been travelling, it will be 2 months between home games. 9 home games in the 2nd half of the season so I still reckon they will be top 3 come the end of the normal season.