Are giving Batley a right humping. Good start to their season.

44-6 winners against a team that finished in the top 3 last season

Garry "the Genius" Schofield tipped the Bulldogs by 7 keep taking the tablets Gaz

Had the goal kicker Mark Kheirallah been more accurate with his goal kicking (he only kicked 4 conversions out of 9), the score would have been more than 50. The outstanding PNG talent Kuni Minga scored three tries, and youg French centre Gavin Margueritte scored two tries of a nine try total.

It seems that Toulouse has assembled a dazzling array of (mostly French) talent in their team. Here's hoping that they make the top 4 in the Championship and successfully challenge for a place in Super league for 2018.

A local derby in Super League between Catalans and Toulouse will do wonders for French rugby league -- attracting new fans, new players, new sponsors and more TV money in France.

I remember their visit to the Shay well, by the fact they failed to bring a single fan!

Great for the clubs coffers. And with Bradford probably playing in League One next year, and another club, Toronto replacing them, and I expect Salford to replace Hull.KR. there's going to be some electric atmospheres next year. Might as well hold the Summer Bash at Barrow.

An unnecessary dig at the Toulouse fans.

I am hoping that Toulouse win promotion to Super League at the end of this season. It will not only be great for rugby league in itself, but it will leave a clear path for Toronto to gain promotion to Super League at the end of 2018.

Here's an idea, why not relegate all the boring English teams from Super League and replace them with as many French & Canadian cities as possible. I'm sure this will be a roaring success.

That is going to happen anyway Mr Sarcastic. And it [iwill[/i be a roaring success.

Possible Super League in 2021:

Leeds
Bradford
Hull FC
Hull KR
Huddersfield
Wigan
St Helens
Warrington

Catalans
Toulouse

Toronto
Montreal

Perhaps these clubs should rely more on their home fans turning up in numbers rather than that of away fans. Just a thought...

3,600 at Toulouse apparently today. Not sure how true that is yet though but if it is, I doubt it was because of how many Batley brought.

You've forgot London or Sheffield to replace one of the Hull sides

What is this obsession some RL fans have with away fan numbers?

The Fire Brigade are on their way round. My house is currently on fire due to an exploding irony meter.

I mistakenly had you down as a more open minded poster Stan.

Here's an even better idea than yours though... Why not add new clubs into the lowest professional tier of RL and have them compete on the pitch with other clubs to earn their way up the leagues and potentially a place in SL?

Another odd comment. You ok Stan? You're a bit miserable to say it's a Saturday evening and the first game of the season tomorrow.

Fine & Dandy here pal, just find it amusing to hear an FC fan attempting to play down the impact away fans have on our game when you all spend the season boasting about your travelling "army".

Indeed, no boundaries, let's merge SL with the NRL and make it a truly global concept.

I'm not sure I've ever boasted about Hull's away support? Plenty of FC fans do though, as well as complaining about away support at the KCOM, which is exactly the point I was making.

As Wellsy pointed out, clubs like Fax can either spend their energy whinging about a lack of away fans for a fixture, or they can devote their energies into improving their home support. For Rovers to attract what 6,000 pass holders(?) for 2017 is quite frankly brilliant, it's not been done by fluke, the club have worked hard to ensure the engagement with supporters has been spot on, the messages of sticking together, signing & retaining the right players, good offers/choices on tickets etc.

Clubs can either pi$$ n moan about something they can't really control (away fans) or they can get their acts together and do something about what they can control. One new regular fan is worth 15 Toulouse fans.

Getting silly now aren't ye.

Amazing performance by Toulouse, probably the best I have ever seen by ANY Rugby league team, it was incredible.

ha ha...nice one Stan !

I understand what you are saying about away fans but, this happens with some English clubs as well.
Each club has to generate interest locally to fill their ground and not rely on away supporters.

If you add the total away fans that visit the Shay and the total that visit Toulouse, Halifax will still be in front.

Catalan have been great for SL and Toulouse and Toronto will bring something different to The Championship and League 1.

Sadly, modern pro sport is all about cash and Toronto & Toulouse will bring new supporters, sponsors and TV money into the game and that has to be a good thing.

Plus, if we can ever get The French to be equal competition for England, that would also be good for the game.

Finally, IF (and its a huge IF), Toronto can be the catalyst to the sport getting a serious foothold in North America, that would be huge for the sport.

I watched this game on periscope (rugby starved, what can I say) and I thought batleys man on man tackling was shocking, so bad in fact, that it reminded me of my team in super league over the past 3-4 seasons gone. They also blew a couple of dead cert tries, and Toulouse just dominated them in the end with their superior physicality.

You have a submarine

Schofield was a fine player, but as a coach was useless and just as useless as a tpister.
The man is clueless.

And yet the two players you mentioned are not French but Australian and a Papuan. 6 of the first 17 players are not French