Makes me laugh how Beaumont criticises the French teams.

He could only dream about getting the level of support Catalans do.

Don't see how the league structure can be changed for 2023.

Going to be a very tight end to the season for Wakefield and Toulouse as both have tough run ins

Wakefield: Catalans (H), Wigan (H), Us (A), Rovers (H), Saints (A), Huddersfield (A)
Toulouse: Rovers (A), Warrington (A), Wigan (A), Catalans (H), Us (A), Saints (A)

Unfortunately with their two point advantage and those fixtures I think Wakefield will stay up. It'll be a big blow to lose Toulouse (so to speak).

Big win for Leeds. Catalan imploded against 12 men

Back from a great few days in Toulouse. People have their own opinions and get both sides of the argument. But for me there is a brilliant opportunity to expand the game into areas such as the south of France. They seem to be really into both codes of the game and the likes of Toulouse could do brilliant things in the area if giving the time that they need. From a fan experience, I had a much better time in France in summer then been stuck in the sleet and snow in Wakefield. I hope they can find a way to stay up and will be going again next year should they do so.

As for the game, it was a job well done. Players are obviously busted and fair enough to the likes of lane and mcintosh that keep putting their hands up each week whilst carrying knocks. Connor in his free roam position looks dangerous and this is where we will see the best of him. Evans spoke a big game during the week and credit to him for turning up yet again.

Thats us bringing nothing to the game again..... "Salford getting battered everywhere we go, Salford getting battered everywhere we go, everwhere we go 1234 "

Another fan for expansion here , Sad to see the way it ended in SL for Toronto , pleased Catalan are doing good and hopefully TO stay up . Nice weekend away with a win chucked in .

best thing that happened toronto going out.there was talk of new york and a couple of othe us teams,another canadian team.where would it end.a super league of 12 teams but not one from the uk?

Full game on FC Live

Just watched the game.

Thought we started pretty well. Evans, Taylor and Fash laid a good platform. Lost our way towards the end of the half.

Second half we were better, seemed to cut out errors and penalties. Sin bin swung the game in our favour, unlike against Cas.

Smith looked good while he was on. I'd be keeping Longstaff too if we can, real effort player.

We seemed to celebrate the little victories and pick people up after an error. Something which Hodgson said we've gone away from recently.

I thought Gale was a bit meh, but maybe I'm being too harsh.

Just watched it, decent performance, once we held the ball, we controlled the game, defence was excellent, they never looked like scoring except a forward pass and a break, which Longstaff made a fantastic cover tackle.

Forwards were very good particularly Longstaff, Taylor and Evans.

Connor was fantastic, his short kicking game was outstanding made a try and about 4 drop outs, defended well too, don't think his defence is an issue in the line, just lacks pace.

Mitch was quality, definitely a player there.

Smith looked dangerous and set up a couple of chances with his quick running and passing, very strong defence too.

Think we could have won by more if we hadn't changed the team so much, finished the game with JJ at 6 and Lane at hooker.

A couple of negatives, six agains, must have given away about 10 and better teams will punish us, not sure what Simm brings to the team, think we have better in our squad.

I can’t see anything other than Leigh. Apparently no play offs, 1 up 1 down.

When they are paying Ferguson 250k, then how can other teams in that league even come close? It's a farce really. 250k Blake Ferguson, playing against part time players. They have double the amount of overseas players than they would be allowed in SL - so half their squad is going to be leaving. Rather keep Toulouse in SL, than have Leigh

Don't have an academy side, all short term planning, I wouldn't allow any team into SL without a youth set up.

I'm with you Dave. When they get relegated Beaumont will rip up the contracts and start again.

They've got 6 or 7 overseas players they need to get rid of if they come up.

They're boom or bust every season. It's pretty depressing to think we could lose Toulouse and gain Leigh next season.

Makes me laugh how Beaumont gives it large about the deficiencies of the French teams.

He buys his way out of a part time League, with about 13 overseas players, doesn’t have a youth set up and can only dream of getting the crowds Catalans do.

For me Leigh with Beaumont offer nothing as there seems to be no long term plan as it still seems to be based on a 5h!t or bust philosophy, which he has done previously and then not learnt the errors of that.

Exactly, we’ve seen it all before. They come up and offer nothing, after being flat track bullies in the Championship.

Playing Devil’s advocate. What, do Toulouse offer other than very expensive away trips and no away support. That Leigh or Featherstone don’t. Given that since Catalan joined there has been no significant extra exposure or funding for the game. In fact probably the opposite.

For me the game is currently in a position where it has to look out of the M62 corridor and instead look further afield. Are places such as Leigh and Fev really the solution to the games current issues?

We've seen it before from Beaumont, splash cash on players whilst hammering part timers in the championship and then half way through the next season they're having to ship them out and are begging for clubs to give a helping hand. Who knows, they might have better resources this time round.

The game has to be adventurous, and the perfect opportunity for that would have been the World Cup this year. But of course, they cant get that right either. 95% of matches across mens, womens and wheelchair rugby are north of Sheffield. Why not take the game to different places? Bristol, Leicester, Gloucester, more than just the one game in London. all areas which have (albeit the wrong code) some interest in rugby. That is how you expand the game, through the national team, someone who everyone can get behind as seen with the womens football team recently.

I am a firm believer that Toulouse should have been given a year exempt from relegation. They started their season with two of their best players leaving and now with six games remaining they're still within a chance of staying up. There is something there, they just need the time to adjust.

Given the 2025 rugby League world cup is in France, having two french teams in the top tier of the Super League will help promote the sport and develop a competitive french team, which in turn could help boost England RL if we played annual competitive fixtures against them, rather than a combined nations all-stars team that attracts very little interest from spectators.

If Toulouse were safe from relegation, a French broadcaster like Bein sports would be more likely to negotiate a TV deal. Catalan are paying 20k a game to put 9 of their home games on TV this year...the rfl are making Toulouse pay for all away teams to travel there this year, so they couldn't afford to do the same.

Toulouse / Catalan both have very good youth set ups and they increase the player pool in super league....several super League clubs have signed french players on recent years. Also, toulouse has a population of 500k...so they'd just need to get 3% of their population interested in the team to sell their stadium out...you'd have to get most of the town's of Fev / Leigh interested to sell their stadiums out.

From a sponsorship point of view, global companies will be more interested in big teams / population areas...we need to move on from being sponsored by mushy peas, free pizza deals,.bookies and small business local to that area (e.g Leigh and sunbed shops).

On the away fans point, yes away fans can bring atmosphere, but apart from saints, Wigan, rovers, Leeds, cas and wire, the others bring no significant away support. Relying on away fans for income is not a good business model...we have 25k seats to sell every other week, we should focus on that rather than relying on 50 fans from Salford to bring some money into the club. Wigan biggest crowd of the year was Vs Toulouse.

Leigh have a nice ground, but once Beaumont has a hissy fit, the money goes and they'll go back down...Fev are just another cas/Wakey and we shouldn't have a quarter of the teams in superleague in such a small geographic area.

If you reversed your argument, what would Fev and Leigh bring to superleague? Other than the game becoming even more northern, insular and small time?

you cant call the ground at Fev a stadium
Its another reason we need to keep Toulouse in S/L a good stadium
Castleford ,Wakefield,Featherstone all within 20 minutes drive of each other and all with crap grounds

The fact that Catalans are having to pay to broadcast their games speaks volumes for the attractiveness of our game to TV companies, and is a backward step from when they joined. Why would Toulouse staying up make it more likely that interest would increase. It could be said that if more UK teams were in the league UK TV companies may be more likely to increase their interest, CH4 for example.
What happens if Toulouse survive, will they continue to pay for other teams to travel. If not, how much does it cost and where do financially hard pressed clubs find the money to pay for it.
Both French teams may have good set ups, but do they sell their grounds out. On the four occasions I have travelled to Catalans, they haven't, and Toulouse don't.
The RLWC being in France is a good thing, but it is a long way off, and there are no guarantees it will be well supported by the French.
For what it's worth I am in agreement with all the past, and any future attempts to expand our game. I just don't think there is the demand out there for it to increase the audience.
Recent developments within sport, specifically TV deals for more diverse sports will probably see that demand decrease.
It may be that we have to accept that the appeal of RL is confined to it's Heartlands.
I hope not.

If Toulouse had 2 or 3 years exemption from relegation like Catalan did then they'd have time to build up a half decent team, rather than signing the cast offs from Leigh, who signed the cast offs from Toronto etc etc. If the French broadcasters knew there were two competitive french teams playing each week, it comes a more attractive proposition than showing Toulouse getting beaten each week...Sky have cut their funding by £14m, so the sport isn't an attractive proposition currently in the UK for broadcasters either...I don't think promoting Leigh or fetherstone will suddenly make Sky give us the £14m extra funding...do you? Only so many sky dishes you can sell to small northern towns.

Catalan regularly get crowds around 10k, they also hold the record super League attendance of getting 31.5k fans at the nou camp...that game generated a lot of press attention. Crowds are down amongst pretty much all super League clubs , very few games sell out anymore, so it's not just a French issue, we don't sell out the kcom, Leeds don't sell out headingley, Wigan don't sell out the DW (they only open 3 stands now for a lot of games)

Toulouse crowds are poor currently around 4/5k, but could increase if they were to become more successful, there is a huge potential market to tap into there given the size of the city...whereas Featherstone and Leighs potential market is a lot smaller...Leigh's crowds are a similar sizes to Toulouses and they've been in super league 3 times.

I’d love to have a ground like Fev. The MKM is a millstone around our necks, a small Rugby League ground for me every time. 13000 fans in a good small ground or 10000 in an empty stadium

Catalans have been with us since 2005 and the TV deals have gone backwards. One off games in Barcelona are bound to attract a crowd. We had a decent crowd in Oz. I was there.

Nothing to stop two uk teams playing at different venues. (Magic)
As I said I’m playing D’s A here.