Sat 5th Mar: SL: Toulouse Olympique v Wigan Warriors KO 18:00 (CET)

[Wollo Wollo Wayoo]

2 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

Wakefield will be worried 

We're always worried apart from when there was 20 seconds left and all Grix had to do was kick the ball dead.  Look how that turned out.

[UTK]

After seeing another debut handed out by TO to french youngster Hugo Pezet I decided to go back and work out how many french players we've seen in SL this season. By my count at the conclusion of round 4 that number will be 26 (***this is if you include Joe Chan) - this number includes 7 SL debuts from TO (Sangare, Puech, Bergal, Marion, Stefani, Marcon, Pezet).

I'm not sure of a realistic way to confirm this but 26 at round 4 feels as if we'd be on track for a season record, this obviously makes sense given the context but is still very encouraging to see. Also important to note that Fages is the only non TO/Cats player on the list (Escare is yet to make an appearance this season), this really illustrates why Cats/TO are so integral in opening up new player pools that can feed into and strengthen SL. 

I believe lots of the pushback against lots of "small northern towns" having SL clubs is completely unnecessary however one undeniable reality of their geographic closeness is that the other 10 SL clubs and the majority of the championship below are all overwhelmingly drawing from the same player pools. Trading an consistently 11-1 Northern-French split for a 10-2 one has immense potential to broaden the talent pool in SL and strengthen the quality of the competition. Hopefully this talent proves enough to keep them up.

Edit: Left the thread after posting to see Scubby's thread which basically covers my whole post anyway.

[Maximus Decimus]

2 hours ago, Scubby said:

R1 12-42, R2 12-34, R3 18-34, R4 28-29

That is hopefully a sign of Toulouse finding their feet in SL. It will be interesting to see if they can get a first win at Wakefield next week. 

 

The notoriously bad Widnes side in 2012 actually got their first win against Wigan with a 37-36 win.

They followed it up with a 58-10 defeat at Hull.

Expect Wakey to win comfortably I'm afraid.

[WN83]

I thought Toulouse would push us close, just not that close. Powell said about Wire last night that their performance had been coming and that feels exactly the same for Wigan. We’ve been good but not great and we’ve had really poor spells in every game so far. I sensed tonight would be a much tougher game than people were saying. 
 

On the plus side it’s 4 from 4 and I do get the feeling we’ve traveled to France with a massive focus on next week. I think we’ll go after Catalans next week and we’ll be far better (and probably still lose). 

[Whippet13]

Enjoyed the game tonight, chaos getting there due to some sort of protest rally cutting off the route to the stadium (not RL related) so only just arrived on foot in time for kick off. Toulouse played very well against against a Wigan who seemed to have one eye on next week and were unlucky. More maturity in the last 5 minutes and they could have gone 29-28 up, they will start to win games sooner or later. Looked to be around 3000 attendance. Off to St Gaudens v Albi tomorrow for my first ever Elite 1 game. French food and wine is as good as ever.

[RL Sonja]

Wonderful stuff from Toulouse. That sort of game can revitalise rugby league in France. 

[The British Lion]

Great effort Toulouse!

[clogdance]

28 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

Just seen the score   cant wait to watch this one.  If Toulouse cant take confidence from that. .. taken them 4 weeks to be toe to toe with Wigan.  

If they go down it will be going down swinging. 

Sounded like Wigan were there for the taking, lots of mistakes and penalties conceded by them, but just by playing well in the first 10 minutes and the last 10, they won.....let's not get carried away folks 

[clogdance]

Highlights

[Szymala]

10 hours ago, UTK said:

After seeing another debut handed out by TO to french youngster Hugo Pezet I decided to go back and work out how many french players we've seen in SL this season. By my count at the conclusion of round 4 that number will be 26 (***this is if you include Joe Chan) - this number includes 7 SL debuts from TO (Sangare, Puech, Bergal, Marion, Stefani, Marcon, Pezet).

I'm not sure of a realistic way to confirm this but 26 at round 4 feels as if we'd be on track for a season record, this obviously makes sense given the context but is still very encouraging to see. Also important to note that Fages is the only non TO/Cats player on the list (Escare is yet to make an appearance this season), this really illustrates why Cats/TO are so integral in opening up new player pools that can feed into and strengthen SL. 

I believe lots of the pushback against lots of "small northern towns" having SL clubs is completely unnecessary however one undeniable reality of their geographic closeness is that the other 10 SL clubs and the majority of the championship below are all overwhelmingly drawing from the same player pools. Trading an consistently 11-1 Northern-French split for a 10-2 one has immense potential to broaden the talent pool in SL and strengthen the quality of the competition. Hopefully this talent proves enough to keep them up.

Edit: Left the thread after posting to see Scubby's thread which basically covers my whole post anyway.

Just to let you know that Hugo Pezet was a non-playing sub - he didn't get on.

[DG70]

A defeat is still a defeat but Toulouse are improving.

[Harry Stottle]

13 hours ago, Wellsy4HullFC said:

Well, I think Toulouse might be taken more seriously now. Unlucky. I blame myself for turning on the commentary when I saw the score 10 minutes ago.

That's what I was thinking reading the thread, on paper it should have been an easy win for Wigan, did the Wigan player's consider that and when they went 0 -10 thought it was going to be a cakewalk settled back then nearly got ambushed? If this is so Wigan will not be the first team to underestimate a weaker opposition and or so very nearly pay the price.

It will obviously make other teams prepare properly mentally and not take any future games they have with TO lightly.

 

[kiggy]

After feeling high after losing last week after a spirited comeback, this week I feel bereft. Cheated even. When will all SL games have a video ref? The decision not to award Marcon's brilliant try in the corner with 4mins left was atrocious. 

Oh well. 

Looking forward to getting Hansen and Peyroux back playing with Springer ...who looks a beast to be honest. With Junior and Latrell back soon as well I think it won't be long before we get a result. Once Kheirallah finally goes maybe lucky to get someone from The NRL to complement the squad.

For Wigan, other than the ref who seemed to favour the boys in pink, Jai and Kai were a handful.

Respect to the Wigan fans who kept the 13second silence at the beginning, impeccably. Enjoy your week in the South of France

[UTK]

11 minutes ago, Szymala said:

Just to let you know that Hugo Pezet was a non-playing sub - he didn't get on.

Ah righto thanks for that, they haven't updated the player stats yet on the SL site so I just ran off the teamlists for the weekend. On that note I must say the website/statistics for SL matches is more than a little disappointing to utilise, I get that the budget would be very limited but it's really not the most user-friendly or informative.

[Harry Stottle]

13 hours ago, Scubby said:

R1 12-42, R2 12-34, R3 18-34, R4 28-29

That is hopefully a sign of Toulouse finding their feet in SL. It will be interesting to see if they can get a first win at Wakefield next week. 

 

The thing from those figures you present Scubby, is yes the TO offence is going in the right direction, but as the old saying goes in our game, "defences win matches" again yes the TO defence is improving but it must still be a worry conceding 29 points as the best return, considering next week in my opinion Wakey are a team that when it clicks for them are well capable of scoring quite a few points, TO will need to tighten the defence up if they are hopeful of a first victory.

[Harry Stottle]

One more consideration, reading further into the thread I now see that Wigan are staying the whole week in France for their game next week, could I suggest that in the Wigan player's minds they were already in 'holiday mood' for this game and didn't give it the consideration they should have, I would like to think this would be Matty Peet's first impression of a hairdryer in the changing rooms after the game.

[Kayakman]

53 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

One more consideration, reading further into the thread I now see that Wigan are staying the whole week in France for their game next week, could I suggest that in the Wigan player's minds they were already in 'holiday mood' for this game and didn't give it the consideration they should have, I would like to think this would be Matty Peet's first impression of a hairdryer in the changing rooms after the game.

Harry why are you always so hard on Toulouse?

[Hello]

3 minutes ago, Kayakman said:

Harry why are you always so hard on Toulouse?

Maybe he's anti expansion but knows that he can't just come out and say it?

[Kayakman]

13 minutes ago, Hello said:

Maybe he's anti expansion but knows that he can't just come out and say it?

Harry is a good man and great Rugby League supporter....no doubt about that.

I don't speak for Harry but deep down who knows???....he could be????, he could not be????

[Lowdesert]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

The thing from those figures you present Scubby, is yes the TO offence is going in the right direction, but as the old saying goes in our game, "defences win matches" again yes the TO defence is improving but it must still be a worry conceding 29 points as the best return, considering next week in my opinion Wakey are a team that when it clicks for them are well capable of scoring quite a few points, TO will need to tighten the defence up if they are hopeful of a first victory.

Improvements in the Team winning promotion are to be expected as, like others going up into SL, there is little time to plan for going up.  

TO are slowly finding their feet.  A couple of decent signings could be the difference and imo an organising half back.  

[Harry Stottle]

45 minutes ago, Kayakman said:

Harry why are you always so hard on Toulouse?

There are reasons for everything K'man, I could have said that Wigan have had 3 lucky wins prior to this game and now they are finding their correct level but I don't think or expect that is the case (had I done so I still expect I would have got @Davo5 and @dkwwith the same confused reaction) I honestly believe that Wigan could and should have done better when the teams that took the field and their recent results are compared, I was just delivering a reason that could suggest why the scores were so close.

[Harry Stottle]

6 minutes ago, Lowdesert said:

Improvements in the Team winning promotion are to be expected as, like others going up into SL, there is little time to plan for going up.  

TO are slowly finding their feet.  A couple of decent signings could be the difference and imo an organising half back.  

Can't disagree with any of that LD, but I feel that their defence is a priority it was suggested that the absence of their long standing fullback is a reason that the defence is not as organised as it should be but I saw the highlights of the Salford game it wasn't as much the organisation of the defence more like the tackling techniques that are lacking, this is not criticism it is an observation.

[kiggy]

Highlights

[clogdance]

3 hours ago, Hello said:

Maybe he's anti expansion but knows that he can't just come out and say it?

Bless 

 

[Hello]

3 minutes ago, clogdance said:

Bless 

 

Thanks