: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:34 am  

manxviking wrote:

Hving read comments on the Donny site, I think "hammered" is incorrect. Apparently both teams were awful but Doncaster had no defence. The Dons fans reckon Toulouse are very ordinary.

They stuffed us

: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:49 am  

They may not have played brilliantly, but they scored 154 points in 3 matches. An ordinary team may be lucky on one match, but on 3 matches in a row like that? It is more likely that there is some quality in this team. I think that Toulouse has demonstrated that it is in the top 6 teams. The next matches against Haven and Barrow at Toulouse will show if it is a top 4 team. If they can beat Haven and Barrow at home, they will demonstrate that they are in the race for a top 4 slot.

Regarding Leigh, I think the team is definitely in contention for a top 6 slot with Haven as the main rival apparently.

: Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:53 am  

The problem with Toulouse at the start of the year was that the French RL blocked them from playing any warm up matches with home teams. So the Widnes match was the first one they had played for some time. Looks like they have a strong team and definitely going to be strong at home in the heat.

The fact they beat Leigh, who are a decent team shows that they are a force to reckon with.

I think it will definitely be one of the games we struggle in and i think we will lose out there.

: Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:09 pm  

billyfax wrote:

The problem with Toulouse at the start of the year was that the French RL blocked them from playing any warm up matches with home teams. So the Widnes match was the first one they had played for some time. Looks like they have a strong team and definitely going to be strong at home in the heat.

The fact they beat Leigh, who are a decent team shows that they are a force to reckon with.

I think it will definitely be one of the games we struggle in and i think we will lose out there.

Well Toulouse has definitely gained some consideration then ! For the moment I still think a Fax win in Toulouse is more likely because Fax has shown that it was almost in a league of its own since the beginning of the season. If Toulouse wins against Barrow and Featherstone at home, and if they take their revenge against Widnes at home, then they would be likely to be favorite for their match at home against Fax. For the moment, wait and see. They could lose several of these matches and not perform as well as the last three matches over the whole season.

: Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:18 pm  

lpage wrote:

But if the appeal of the top competition grows, the appeal of lower competitions may also grow if there is a prospect of promotion. For instance, French are now watching Toulouse matches on TV , they are talking in the press of the Championship, and the number of spectators is growing relative to previous years. If the Championship becomes a second tier competition below the SL, then it will have a bigger appeal than now.

Then the Championship 1 will also be more attractive as it will give the possibility to get into the Championship. I predict a higher number of spectators in the Championship and a better TV coverage. The competition who will lose relatively more is the French Elite 1 who will de facto become a third tier competition. However, even here it will be better than the risk of complete disparition they were heading to.

I often read, on English and French forums that the Dragons and TO aims for SL to improve the French game and that eventually they should/will come back in France. I think it is completely missing the point. The French RL has regressed over 30 years and was on the brink of extinction, there is no way a French professional championship would work within the next 10 years. Then in 10 years we will have a great European competition. I don't see the RFL or the French club deciding to split it in national competitions where both the RFL and the French clubs would lose out in terms of TV coverage, sponsoring money and likely spectators audience.

Hit the nail on the head there - the point is there is NO prospect of promotion any more, it's been taken away first of all with the decision to move to franchising, and second by the artificial inclusion of expansion teams who meet less of the RFL's own supposed criteria than existing but less fashionable teams. Currently there is still P&R between Chamionship & Chamionship 1, but when the championship becomes full of new & developing expansion teams all competing to be fast-tracked into SL first, that door will be slammed shut as well to protect their status in that division.

We'll have to disagree about a European competition being the way to go about growing the game - eventually, yes, I can see merits, but RL as a whole should have made a priority of putting its own house in order and making sure its member clubs were being run soundly and that all top-level clubs could provide a suitable model of how to operate a RL club, before money was pumped into bringing new European clubs in to try and compete.

And if and when the move into Europe was made, it should have been done as a separate cup competition, preserving the top flight leagues (along with P&R) both in this country and in France. Having the best players & teams in the French league taken away to play in another country's comp can only be detrimental to their own. By preserving the league structure & system in both countries the Union model of a European cup competition could have been explored, while improving standards in both countried simultaneously. Even anti-franchising fans like myself would have been interested in the possibilities of a new competition, as long as the game we know and love (sorry knew & loved) was not ruined in the process.

: Tue Apr 28, 2009 12:53 pm  

Well I agree to disagree

I am confident the future will tell that it is the right option. I am firmly against a new european cup. We do not need more and more matches in the agenda. We need one top European competition, as the Super League was initially intended to be. Maybe a second one with the Championship. I must say I am not too much in favour of licensing myself. I think that it removes lots of the interest of lower leagues and gives an unfair advantage to lower teams of the higher competition who can get a rent for several years even in case of poor results. Hopefully, eventually the higher competitions will not be closed. At least I hope that there will be P&R every 2-3 years, I would hope it would be more often. In any case licensing and europeanisation are not logically linked.

Regarding the Cup, there is already a European Cup with the Challenge Cup which is open to clubs from the coutries in Europe playing RL. It would have no history, would be dominated by English clubs like the Challenge Cup and would be pretty much a meaningless addition to the Challenge Cup.

Anyway, my prediction is that in 10 years, Leigh will be playing in a great European Championship with more supporters and more TV coverage, be it SL or the Championship. This is something who would not have happen if the RL had stayed focused on an M62 competition.

: Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:18 pm  

trainee_lobbygobbler wrote:

They stuffed us

In incredibly hot weather I believe, and to be honest, neither Widnes nor Leigh are above "ordinary" at the moment. I am expecting a stuffing when we go there in late July!

: Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:24 pm  

manxviking wrote:

In incredibly hot weather I believe, and to be honest, neither Widnes nor Leigh are above "ordinary" at the moment. I am expecting a stuffing when we go there in late July!

God help any team who have to play them in the summer at their place....