International RL Blog

Hull FC coach Richard Agar will be leaving his post at the end of the season and this could potentially be embarrassing for the club as they are just coming into a run of form. According to their SL license application Hull FC are top four team and they are certainly a  big club who should be doing better than scraping into the play-offs. Their new owner will have big expectations and will expect players performances on the field of play to at least match the performance of their administrators although appointing serial loser Shaun MacRae is not a good start It must be a massive cause for concern at the RFL that Featherstone Rovers (a good RL team) can comprehensively beat SL elect side Widnes (good at paperwork) twice in recent weeks. As was widely predicted, Toulouse have resigned from the RL Championship and rejoined the French Elite.     This makes sense and they are rejoining a competition which could and should be at least equal in stature to the RL C...

There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. I've just heard that Toulouse will withdraw from the English RL Championship and rejoin the French Elite 1.  This move is regrettable but became inevitable when it emerged that continued participation would not be a guaranteed stepping stone to Super League. Toulouse were in a strange position anyway by being forced to pay their own travelling expenses while the expenses of their English opponents were being subsidised.    We must now be bold because this is an obvious opportunity to relaunch the the French Championship with some top class marketing and targeted help. The money saved, said to be £400K per season, can be used to provide RL supporters in the South of France with some of the top class action they are crying out for.  France is a big, well developed country with a rugby culture...

28/4/11  Widnes Vikings 26  Toulouse Olympique XIII 12 Super League elect side Widnes hosted Super League wannabees Toulouse in front of the SKY TV cameras on a balmy Thursday evening at the Stobart Stadium. Widnes are guaranteed promotion at the end of the year so it was difficult to see how their coaching staff could motivate the players but numerous youngsters would be hoping to impress and earn a lucrative Super League contract. Toulouse have struggled with injuries this year but would be keen to continue their steady progress and achieve their stated objective of making the end of year play offs Defences were on top during the first half and I was looking for a demonstration of the famous French flair but unfortunately it seems to have been coached out of them. Tony Gigot, on loan from the Catalan Dragons, tried his best and showed some nice touches but also demonstrated his inexperience and naivety. It was a pity that Toulouse coach Gilles Dumas wasn't playing becaus...