Sun 10 Oct: MPG: Toulouse Olympique v Featherstone Rovers KO 18:00 (Sky)

[Tubby]

24 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Yep true, basically why he was born in Bethlehem and not Nazareth 

But he supported Nazareth. Unless Jerusalem were at home. 

[Futtocks]

1 minute ago, Tubby said:

But he supported Nazareth. Unless Jerusalem were at home. 

I suspect he'd be one of those types who buys a half-and-half scarf for the local derby...

[Exiled Wiganer]

I tell you what, the reactions of the Fev fans on here to their defeat have been fantastically dignified and positive. It’s like reading Just Browny after a controversial last minute loss at the DW.
 

They are a breath of fresh air. 

[clogdance]

1 hour ago, oiseau said:

Best team of the season and on the night won by a mile. A lot of pressure on TO to win the game. Good atmosphere though the fans were quieter than the Batley game.

Great that the main sponsor Mr Sarrazin has seen his investment finally bear fruit, the game  needs people like him.

Next season will be fun, let’s enjoy it for however long it lasts.

At least Toulouse will be playing more than 14 league games next season.......hopefully  

[Scubby]

3 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

I tell you what, the reactions of the Fev fans on here to their defeat have been fantastically dignified and positive. It’s like reading Just Browny after a controversial last minute loss at the DW.
 

They are a breath of fresh air. 

The overwhelming majority of Fev fans on here have been amazing. History of this board shows us that when a club is on the up there are a lot of supporters of that club posting messages. Fev are certainly on the up and the club is going from strength to strength. 

[fcl]

Many Audois (Lezignan, Carcassonne and Limoux) got used to supporting the Dragons. I think that even if they will support Toulouse, they will go more easily to Perpignan because they are used to it and there is a community which has formed around the Dragons for the last 15 years. It will take time for Toulouse to build an audience but the people of Albi, Villeneuve and Saint Gaudens will be there. Without forgetting that Toulouse is the 4th French city and the 34th agglomeration of Europe.

[Wellsy4HullFC]

Next year is a huge year for French rugby league. That first derby will be a huge celebration for the game there. Toulouse have been waiting over 25 years for this. I hope I can make it next year! Would be s great away day!

[marklaspalmas]

Just got back to my hotel in Toulouse. 

All credit to TO. They just didn't let us play in the first half, so strong and unforgiving. We gave it a much better go on the second half, but came up second best.

The ground is great, the atmosphere was spot on. We were sitting with all TO fans, a good bunch of folks.

Don't mind admitting I must have got something in my eye after the final whistle as it started watering when I saw our shattered players go over to applaud our loyal fans. I thought it was our year.

But TO look ready for SL. They mean business. Good luck to them. Our day will come.

[Scubby]

1 minute ago, marklaspalmas said:

Just got back to my hotel in Toulouse. 

All credit to TO. They just didn't let us play in the first half, so strong and unforgiving. We gave it a much better go on the second half, but came up second best.

The ground is great, the atmosphere was spot on. We were sitting with all TO fans, a good bunch of folks.

Don't mind admitting I must have got something in my eye after the final whistle as it started watering when I saw our shattered players go over to applaud our loyal fans. I thought it was our year.

But TO look ready for SL. They mean business. Good luck to them. Our day will come.

It was an amazing following from Fev given the short notice Mark. Sounded great on TV too. Must have been some atmosphere with 9200 in.

[marklaspalmas]

4 minutes ago, Scubby said:

It was an amazing following from Fev given the short notice Mark. Sounded great on TV too. Must have been some atmosphere with 9200 in.

It was. The Fev faithful were in fine voice.

The TO fans all had flags and such. Lots of families. Loads of kids  Just a good bunch of folk.

[RayCee]

17 minutes ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Next year is a huge year for French rugby league. That first derby will be a huge celebration for the game there. Toulouse have been waiting over 25 years for this. I hope I can make it next year! Would be s great away day!

It may sound an unusual angle but will they have French officials for the games or fly over English ones?

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

23 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

Just got back to my hotel in Toulouse. 

All credit to TO. They just didn't let us play in the first half, so strong and unforgiving. We gave it a much better go on the second half, but came up second best.

The ground is great, the atmosphere was spot on. We were sitting with all TO fans, a good bunch of folks.

Don't mind admitting I must have got something in my eye after the final whistle as it started watering when I saw our shattered players go over to applaud our loyal fans. I thought it was our year.

But TO look ready for SL. They mean business. Good luck to them. Our day will come.

Fev fans looked & sounded great on Sky, and there was a good 20 min period in the 2nd half when you could see Rovers winning.

Can’t see beyond them for the title next year - certainly prefer them to Leigh and their “interesting” owner!! 
 

 

[Tex Evans Thigh]

1 hour ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

I tell you what, the reactions of the Fev fans on here to their defeat have been fantastically dignified and positive. It’s like reading Just Browny after a controversial last minute loss at the DW.
 

They are a breath of fresh air. 

I’m a Fev fan and sometimes some of our fans can go over the top, but everyone has been quite dignified. The Facebook group is usually a bit toxic but apart from a couple of the usual ref blamers, most acknowledged Toulouse were better. I’d like to think Sir Kevin Sinfield et al would have reacted with similar dignity.

It’s sport and Toulouse won on the field. Looking forward to seeing how they go next year, either way it was a new team in SL, which needs it. Hopefully Fev can go again next year.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

2 hours ago, Scubby said:

It seems bizarre to notice it after the whole season but the body shapes of the Fev forwards were really noticeable. Toulouse looked noticably bigger in the middle and Fev could not hold them. Fev's aces seemed to be in the outside backs and they looked very dangerous, but unfortunately they could not stop the tide in the middle.

I thought beforehand that Fev would come to miss Harrison, Moors and Day. Moors was key to the right edge attack and is a big body. Harrison is excellent in the middle hence his move to warrington. Fev’s game plan is based on fast rucks and 2 very good hookers going at the line. Toulouse won every collision in that first half practically. If Fev had weathered the storm I think Toulouse would have gotten nervous and you could tell lack of matches affected them.

In any case they deserved to win. Fev had two cracks at them this year and came up short twice.

[sentoffagain2]

4 minutes ago, Tex Evans Thigh said:

I thought beforehand that Fev would come to miss Harrison, Moors and Day. Moors was key to the right edge attack and is a big body. Harrison is excellent in the middle hence his move to warrington. Fev’s game plan is based on fast rucks and 2 very good hookers going at the line. Toulouse won every collision in that first half practically. If Fev had weathered the storm I think Toulouse would have gotten nervous and you could tell lack of matches affected them.

In any case they deserved to win. Fev had two cracks at them this year and came up short twice.

We missed Harrison for his defence and go forward in opponents 30m area.The other two are much as we have at present,Would you pick Moors over Davies or Bussey and Day was just hitting form before his injury but  his defence is not so great.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

3 hours ago, sentoffagain2 said:

We missed Harrison for his defence and go forward in opponents 30m area.The other two are much as we have at present,Would you pick Moors over Davies or Bussey and Day was just hitting form before his injury but  his defence is not so great.

I would have picked Moors over Davies, yes and Field. I love JD but rotating moors onto an edge gives you a X factor. No coincidence Gaga’s tries dried when he was gone. Agree day and halton fairly similar.

Our middle was quite lightweight and got rolled in the first 20. Think that would have happened whoever we had out there to be fair. They came out like it was a grand final we didn’t. Coach has to take some criticism for that because they clearly had it in them in the second half 

[Tommygilf]

7 hours ago, RayCee said:

It may sound an unusual angle but will they have French officials for the games or fly over English ones?

There was a French ref for a few years but now the pool is all English. 

[welshmagpie]

11 hours ago, idrewthehaggis said:

Same here. Bet you lot get June and us lot February though. 

When are the fixtures out?

The usual (non-covid) habit is very early in November. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

9 hours ago, Scubby said:

The overwhelming majority of Fev fans on here have been amazing. History of this board shows us that when a club is on the up there are a lot of supporters of that club posting messages. Fev are certainly on the up and the club is going from strength to strength. 

I think all a lot of us (Fev fans) wanted was for the outcome to be decided on the field. I personally have said umpteen times on this forum when people have said that it "needs" to be Toulouse that go up, that it actually "needs" to be the team that wins the final, because that's what sport is about.

And Toulouse won fair and square, so they get promoted, and that's just how it should be. They did it the right way, starting in League One, building steadily, and they thoroughly deserve their place in SL.

 

[tim2]

1 minute ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think all a lot of us (Fev fans) wanted was for the outcome to be decided on the field. I personally have said umpteen times on this forum when people have said that it "needs" to be Toulouse that go up, that it actually "needs" to be the team that wins the final, because that's what sport is about.

And Toulouse won fair and square, so they get promoted, and that's just how it should be. They did it the right way, starting in League One, building steadily, and they thoroughly deserve their place in SL.

 

While I understand your reasoning, we are very much dominated in our thinking in this country by football, which has a lot of money sloshng around and literally hundreds of clubs, maybe 50 of which have the resources to compete in a top flight of 20 clubs. 

Rugby League doesn't have anything like that. The model for the sport should not automatically copy another one. Rugby Union in Scotland, Wales and Ireland has an invitation-only international league for example.

Toulouse (and Toronto) spent a lot of money unnecessarily jumping through hoops that could have been avoided with a strategy that encourages additonal investment whilst retaining the ability for ambitious clubs from the UK to play at the highest level. I'm not sure that the words "strategy" and "RL" belong in the same sentence, sadly, unless it also includes "doesn't have a".

 

[Scubby]

1 hour ago, Tommygilf said:

There was a French ref for a few years but now the pool is all English. 

Remy Casty's brother Ben is a pretty high profile referee in France. My guess is the full time salary offered by the RFL is not enticing enough for many to give up jobs.

[tim2]

5 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Remy Casty's brother Ben is a pretty high profile referee in France. My guess is the full time salary offered by the RFL is not enticing enough for many to give up jobs.

and/or to live in the North of England rather than the South of France.

[PECETTO]

21 minutes ago, tim2 said:

While I understand your reasoning, we are very much dominated in our thinking in this country by football, which has a lot of money sloshng around and literally hundreds of clubs, maybe 50 of which have the resources to compete in a top flight of 20 clubs. 

Rugby League doesn't have anything like that. The model for the sport should not automatically copy another one. Rugby Union in Scotland, Wales and Ireland has an invitation-only international league for example.

Toulouse (and Toronto) spent a lot of money unnecessarily jumping through hoops that could have been avoided with a strategy that encourages additonal investment whilst retaining the ability for ambitious clubs from the UK to play at the highest level. I'm not sure that the words "strategy" and "RL" belong in the same sentence, sadly, unless it also includes "doesn't have a".

 

Toronto spent a lot of money. Not toulouse 

[tim2]

5 minutes ago, PECETTO said:

Toronto spent a lot of money. Not toulouse 

Depends what you mean by "a lot". They've funded away games in the UK this season with no home matches. Would any of their rivals have done that?

[Wakefield Ram]

Thought it was a great performance from Featherstone, really hung in their as TO played really well in the first half with barely an error. 

In the second, great fight back from Fev, have to say was a bit surprised Parata didn't come on earlier as he livened things up, but at the end of the day hard not to agree that TO were the better team on the day and overall during the season.

Think Fev will be favourites to go up next year.