Re: Toulouse next : Thu Apr 25, 2024 12:55 pm  

They’re only missing one player from 17 by looks so are pretty much full strength. Should be a good contest.

Looking forward to seeing us run out at home for first time in a good while.

Re: Toulouse next : Thu Apr 25, 2024 7:01 pm  

No Olly Ashall-Bott - who usually plays well against us

Re: Toulouse next : Thu Apr 25, 2024 8:56 pm  

See mac walsh is in there squad,he was excellent in his spell in our academy great strong winger/centre

Re: Toulouse next : Fri Apr 26, 2024 1:46 pm  

FIL wrote:

No Olly Ashall-Bott - who usually plays well against us

He was very good when we played them in France a couple of seasons ago

Re: Toulouse next : Fri Apr 26, 2024 2:08 pm  

Yeah Ashall-Bott is a huge gap for them - has been out with injury for long periods and they always miss him. Have a fairly good deputy in Robin Brochon but he's not in the squad either. So they've got two options at the back, play Benjamin Laguerre (Mathieu's brother obviously), or move a halfback to fullback and play Marion in the halves. Either way if we play well we'll be fine. Big if!

Re: Toulouse next : Fri Apr 26, 2024 3:51 pm  

Butcher wrote:

Yeah Ashall-Bott is a huge gap for them - has been out with injury for long periods and they always miss him. Have a fairly good deputy in Robin Brochon but he's not in the squad either. So they've got two options at the back, play Benjamin Laguerre (Mathieu's brother obviously), or move a halfback to fullback and play Marion in the halves. Either way if we play well we'll be fine. Big if!

Why is it even remotely a big if? At what point have we not played well this year? Beaten narrowly just once on a ploughed field. I'd say that if there is a "big if", it's surely whether we play badly?

Re: Toulouse next : Fri Apr 26, 2024 3:58 pm  

imwakefieldtillidie wrote:

Ashall-Bott's pretty decent but he's coming back from a serious injury. Guy Armitage was okay a couple of years ago but is knocking on a bit now. Wakefield by 20. Sheffield will be harder the week after.

He's an OK player imho, but he does strangely seem to come to life against us.

Toulouse and Sheffield are our biggest tests since the opening game against Bradford. The Eagles are a mouthwatering clash, with the comps most fancied team, against this years surprise package. If we beat Toulouse we've nullified the threat from the team most expected to challenge us through the season, if we beat Sheffield we've slapped down an upstart - I'd be really happy with that, and frankly I don't care how attractively we do it, just as long as we do.

Re: Toulouse next : Fri Apr 26, 2024 6:18 pm  

vastman wrote:

He's an OK player imho, but he does strangely seem to come to life against us.

Toulouse and Sheffield are our biggest tests since the opening game against Bradford. The Eagles are a mouthwatering clash, with the comps most fancied team, against this years surprise package. If we beat Toulouse we've nullified the threat from the team most expected to challenge us through the season, if we beat Sheffield we've slapped down an upstart - I'd be really happy with that, and frankly I don't care how attractively we do it, just as long as we do.

Yeah I'd agree with all that. Whilst I still don't think we've hit the levels we're capable of yet this season, I also think for any team to beat us they'll need to be at there best for the full 80 minutes and even then we'll be hard to break down.

Re: Toulouse next : Fri Apr 26, 2024 6:26 pm  

imwakefieldtillidie wrote:

Yeah I'd agree with all that. Whilst I still don't think we've hit the levels we're capable of yet this season, I also think for any team to beat us they'll need to be at there best for the full 80 minutes and even then we'll be hard to break down.

Totally agree, we've been very patchy but we've scored plenty of points. What we are doing is defending like our lives depended on it.

Re: Toulouse next : Fri Apr 26, 2024 7:25 pm  

Over 7k tickets sold for tomorrow evening's game , phenomenal support , this really is a different club these day's .