Only if the French club is a travel company. Which is where the bulk of the money spent will be going

It would seem you have reached new depths of pedantry with that post , well done

Yes but what does a French club in NL1 really achieve? A French club in SL it's easy to see the benefits of, but the massively increased costs for an entire league seems to more than offset the smalle benefits of one club playing in a slightly higher standard of competition, despite not being too good to play in their current competition

It could be another case of RL trying to run before they can walk, but it could well be the implementation of a vision to make the NL1 comp a genuinely interesting comp - and get TV revenue for it.
I think that this is a bit of a Crusaders issue "they can only try this now, even if they are not really ready" as opposed to a Catalans "they are ready now" issue.

, Are we suddenly to believe that having Toulouse in NL 1 will result in TV companies throwing cash at us ?

2 nd , if the NL's are that uninteresting that the inclusion of a mid/lower club from France is the best the RFL can come up with to generate interest in the competition then they are truly b0lloxed

in three years time maybe so, maybe sky will pay that £100k per season and the £100k currently coming from the RFL can go to the amateur game



Toulouse arent a mid/lower club, they may have finished there last year but they have a long and distinguished history in the LER and only 3 years ago a semi pro/LER Toulouse were in the semi final of the Challenge cup having beaten Widnes, and in 2005 and 2006 they were LER grand finalists and have been in 4 of the last 9 championships

In three years time Toulouse will get a SL franchise , so how will they help to get additional SKY support then [ that is if SKY are not already paying





All irrelivant , just history

maybe so, maybe another french club without SL ambition like Pia or Lezignan will take their place? maybe along with a Scottish/Irish side? maybe these things were discussed with sky prior to the last deal being signed?



how would you be looking to judge what Toulouse did in the French Elite other than what they did in the french elite?

Quite probably , the RFL's lack of being able to see what is in front of them has no limits

I have no wish to judge Toulouse on thier past present or future , they are a French club and should stay a French club until the organisation known as SLE wants them in thier competition

They should not be foistered on the clubs in our second tier and the money it will cost having them in our second tier could be better spent

I also have no wish to get involved with any more pointless arguments with people like yourself

how do you know this is the case? how do you know the RFL havent spoken to sponsors and the £100-£200k it will cost to trasport a team to france (or vice-versa) only came in to the game to do specifically that?

when the RFL is giving each club in the NLs £100k from their central fund (of which the vast vast majority will come from SL or the international game) they dont really have the right to complain when the RFL wants something back from it do they? especially when that something will cost the NL clubs nothing!

maybe the RFL is only putting Toulouse into the NLs to prepare them for SL, even if we discount any possible benefit to the NLs, for a £100k a team and their travel costs paying, i doubt we would see the NL clubs complaining

Very well put bowes

No sensible answer to your post

Actually I'd add further to keeping the leagues separate I'd look at getting a European Comp with maybe 5 from NL1 and 3 from French Elite, which would get far more publicity than just 1 token French team in NL1 and would be far less in travelling expenses