6000 at Toulouse v Toronto game

[Dunbar]

9 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Highlights:

 

Toulouse ripped them to shreds in the second half. While the camera work for the whole try wasn't great, the offload to set up the first try in the second half was outstanding. 

[GeordieSaint]

Just now, Dunbar said:

Toulouse ripped them to shreds in the second half. While the camera work for the whole try wasn't great, the offload to set up the first try in the second half was outstanding. 

Joy to watch in that mood... utterly devastating. Thought they were a bit unlucky to lose in Toronto last year during the Middle 8s so a bit of pay back yesterday.

I am not too worried about the Wolfpack though; they’ll come back strongly. No team in the Championship (and some SL clubs) can live with TO in that mood. 

[Blind side johnny]

2 hours ago, The Parksider said:

It is of course a fantastic thought indeed the only problem being given Les Catalans have 12 English & antipodean players in their team, for TO to compete it appears they may need as many quality imports or even a couple more for the clubs to play out such a game at Superleague level. It would look wonderful with either clubs venue packed out for the game, the only problem comes when someone in the real world points out the two teams aren't really French.  Oiseau may need to ignore this fact otherwise things may be a bit "cringeworthy"....

You can't stop having a go at the game.You talk about "positive opinions" then you trash us even though the English game actually pulled off a £200M TV deal and exports great players to the NRL. If your such a genius financial analyst tell me how two largely non-french teams playing two derby's in France is going to pull a big French TV deal. "Expansion" was defined by the English SL clubs as increasing the French player pool and capturing a French TV deal. This was readily accepted by the chairman and the board of Toulouse. TO's promotion to SL will provide no financial or quality player "expansion" as it stands. 

It really is time you made some sensible posts based on the financial and staffing realities......

Your very confused here, crowds can grow and grow at these clubs but we want them to grow Quality professional players and grow the TV revenue to share. If France can develop say 30 SL quality players then we may get to the REAL prize of Great Britain and France test matches and not two largely non-French teams having to be exported there to put on pro club games like this. Everyone sane on here understands the importance of International Rugby League as vehicle for assisting the real expansion of players and revenue. Pick me a competitive International French team from the Catalans and TO squads?

That's a challenge for everyone.....

"Sponsorship" and "crowds" are OK to help provide the £5M a proper professional RL club needs to break even but the game itself can only be professional with a TV deal and with systems for producing professional players. France have no TV deal and have struggled since 2006 to produce SL quality French players in any number at all. In North America there are no players at all and no TV money at all either, but hey they have "crowds" and they have "sponsors" (not that we are ever told how much the sponsors actually pay). The also have a TV deal that pays nothing. We need quality players and TV deals

There's no doubt TO can pull a big crowd, they have done it for GB.v.France games in which the French team WAS French. That was also great to see, but not great enough to pull in more quality French players or pull in French TV.

The Bottom line is the game is about TV revenue and quality players - the real question is how much French or American TV money did this game generate and how many top quality French/American players were on show??

You're right again Parky. Expansion is a waste of time and they should all be shut down forthwith, then we will have enough British players to last for the next ten years before we fold the game completely.

Visionaries? Time wasters more like!

[Manxmanc]

I couldn't help feeling I was looking into the future. That's a taste of Super League as it could be and it's compelling. 

As a heartlander,  I can see that by carefully managing this, there is a chance to lift up traditional clubs in the process.

[Big Picture]

4 hours ago, RayCee said:

I'm sure your comment is tongue in cheek as most RL fans along the M62 express positive opinions about the game expanding. If 14 teams are adopted as mentioned above, then it doesn’t mean current SL teams need to be dropped to accommodate new sides like Toronto and Toulouse entering SL. The only issue I see is generating enough revenue to do it. RL isn’t very good at selling itself, only at selling itself short.

If and when a transatlantic RL equivalent of Super Rugby and Pro14 comes into existence, including any current SL teams would be a mistake.  They and their small-minded management wouldn't bring any of the value necessary to generate the revenue needed for such a league to succeed.  Neither Super Rugby nor Pro14 include any traditional RU clubs, so by definition an RL equivalent couldn't include any traditional clubs either otherwise it wouldn't be equivalent to those leagues.

[Davo5]

1 hour ago, Oxford said:

To save time

Let's face this result is irrelevant as they both bring nothing to SL or RL or sport in general or life in particular!

Behave,don't you know it's Parky's role to talk Shoite and campaign against optimism on the subject of expansion and moving the game forward.

[Tommygilf]

15 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

If and when a transatlantic RL equivalent of Super Rugby and Pro14 comes into existence, including any current SL teams would be a mistake.  They and their small-minded management wouldn't bring any of the value necessary to generate the revenue needed for such a league to succeed.  Neither Super Rugby nor Pro14 include any traditional RU clubs, so by definition an RL equivalent couldn't include any traditional clubs either otherwise it wouldn't be equivalent to those leagues.

I mean thats stretching the truth at best. Glasgow and Edinburgh compete for 100 plus year old trophy, the South African teams are just the regional teams given new names. The Welsh are arguably only a consolidation of the biggest clubs. Ospreys are Swansea RFC playing in Neaths all black kit, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't think Scarlets were merely an extension of Llanelli Scarlets. Even the New Zealand franchises are joint owned ventures by 3 traditional unions.

The idea that the likes of Leeds or Wigan(even as "Manchester") wouldn't be involved is pie in the sky.

[DoubleD]

1 hour ago, GeordieSaint said:

Highlights:

 

That try by TO on 74 minutes from the tap 20 was embarrassing from a Toronto POV. Any coach at any level would be livid by the lack of effort there, McDermott must be fuming. Unless he was injured, Springer’s pathetic attempts at tackling on the last 2 tries will surely see him dropped for the next game 

[Big Picture]

2 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

I mean thats stretching the truth at best. Glasgow and Edinburgh compete for 100 plus year old trophy, the South African teams are just the regional teams given new names. The Welsh are arguably only a consolidation of the biggest clubs. Ospreys are Swansea RFC playing in Neaths all black kit, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who didn't think Scarlets were merely an extension of Llanelli Scarlets. Even the New Zealand franchises are joint owned ventures by 3 traditional unions.

The idea that the likes of Leeds or Wigan(even as "Manchester") wouldn't be involved is pie in the sky.

When I say "a transatlantic RL equivalent of Super Rugby and Pro14" I am not talking about the existing top tier, I am referring to a completely new and separate organization modelled on major North American pro leagues which leaves the traditional clubs in their same traditional leagues.  If whoever bought the franchise for Northwest England decided on Manchester as the location for it after considering all the options in his franchise region, then Manchester would be included.

Almost 40 years of experience in London suggests that Londoners don't rate those traditional clubs as being worth their time or attention, and no evidence suggests that Mancunians do either.  On the contrary, the events of the past year have likely just reinforced the stereotypes about the sport in their minds.  Something completely new which has something not seen in other sports could possibly change that, but realistically nothing else could.

[GUBRATS]

3 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

When I say "a transatlantic RL equivalent of Super Rugby and Pro14" I am not talking about the existing top tier, I am referring to a completely new and separate organization modelled on major North American pro leagues which leaves the traditional clubs in their same traditional leagues.  If whoever bought the franchise for Northwest England decided on Manchester as the location for it after considering all the options in his franchise region, then Manchester would be included.

Almost 40 years of experience in London suggests that Londoners don't rate those traditional clubs as being worth their time or attention, and no evidence suggests that Mancunians do either.  On the contrary, the events of the past year have likely just reinforced the stereotypes about the sport in their minds.  Something completely new which has something not seen in other sports could possibly change that, but realistically nothing else could.

Yes , but that isn't happening ever 

[Wellsy4HullFC]

Any plans to play there again this season?

It seems TO's SL prospects would be best served in that stadium.

[EastLondonMike]

Couple of lovely offloads from the Toulouse No.16.

[JonM]

29 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Any plans to play there again this season?

It seems TO's SL prospects would be best served in that stadium.

Nothing planned, although this one was only announced at the end of January. Last game for TO there was 2006 Championship Final against Pia. At the moment, Stade Toulousain seem to have a relatively benign attitude, but that might change if TO looked like they might be competing for fans, sponsors etc.

[Damien]

9 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Big result in front of a big crowd. Very impressive. 

I am still aniticpating a 14 team SL in 2020.

Hopefully, a 14 team Super League with Toulouse and Toronto added sounds fantastic to me. It also lays the foundations for the game to develop further in France and attract TV money from France and Canada.

[langpark]

6103 was the exact figure.  Well done to them for showing ambition and using this great stadium!    It does look like a great stadium, built for rugby and really close to the action.  Must be a great atmosphere when full!

I'd love to see them take at least one more match this season to that stadium, either of these two (or ideally, both!) would be great:

25th May:  vs Leigh

6th July: vs Bradford

Let's hope they can get promoted and make it their permanent home for next season!

[Oxford]

1 hour ago, Davo5 said:

Behave,don't you know it's Parky's role to talk Shoite and campaign against optimism on the subject of expansion and moving the game forward.

Yeah but we could save time and effort if we cut to the chase and we would be saved from the War and Peace sized diatribe.

 

[clogdance]

Where was the game played ?

[John Fisher]

8 hours ago, Big Picture said:

Imagine it packed for the opening round match of a Toulouse franchise in a transatlantic RL equivalent of Super Rugby and Pro14 against Montréal kicking off a whole round of such transatlantic blockbuster matches, with a major French recording artist booked to sing the national anthems before kickoff and TV audiences in all the countries where franchises would be located tuning in.  How's that for a vision of what the game could be?

Prefer clubs to franchises, but it's only an opinion

[The Daddy]

1 hour ago, DoubleD said:

That try by TO on 74 minutes from the tap 20 was embarrassing from a Toronto POV. Any coach at any level would be livid by the lack of effort there, McDermott must be fuming. Unless he was injured, Springer’s pathetic attempts at tackling on the last 2 tries will surely see him dropped for the next game 

I counted and Springer missed tackles in three of the TO tries. It seems like they targeted him and I'm sure they know plenty about him given he came through their system.

[John Fisher]

41 minutes ago, langpark said:

6103 was the exact figure.  Well done to them for showing ambition and using this great stadium!    It does look like a great stadium, built for rugby and really close to the action.  Must be a great atmosphere when full!

I'd love to see them take at least one more match this season to that stadium, either of these two (or ideally, both!) would be great:

25th May:  vs Leigh

6th July: vs Bradford

Let's hope they can get promoted and make it their permanent home for next season!

And the stadium has a Michelin starred restaurant as well, so I believe

[dkw]

20 minutes ago, clogdance said:

Where was the game played ?

France. 

Stade Ernest Wallon apparently. 

[Damien]

28 minutes ago, John Fisher said:

And the stadium has a Michelin starred restaurant as well, so I believe

Does it do pies?

[clogdance]

42 minutes ago, dkw said:

France. 

Stade Ernest Wallon apparently. 

Thanks..

[Cdd]

To anyone questioning the amount of french players used by Catalans....

Do they have more home grown players in their squad than many super league teams? Yes - enough said.

Have they produced a bigger talent pool for super league? Yes - two grand final winners last year through their system. Enough said. 

Would that player pool increase if Toulouse were included? Yes.

If any team is damaging the league right now it’s Salford. They produce none of their own players and are offering no benefits to the £2million hand out given to them by the sport each year.

Catalans are a breath of fresh air. We have more games on TV because of them and a bigger player pool to choose from because of them.

BOTH Catalans and Toulouse in Super League would mean even more games on TV, and an even bigger pool of players to choose from.

It seems to upset people that these clubs can offer more to the sport than clubs who’ve been in and around the top flight for over 100 years.

[paulwalker71]

2 hours ago, The Daddy said:

I counted and Springer missed tackles in three of the TO tries. 

I seriously doubt that Toronto signed Gadwin Springer for his defence

I'm not exactly sure what they did sign him for, if I'm being completely honest!