Toulouse Olympique

Toulouse Olympique XIII
Club information
Full name Toulouse Olympique XIII
Colours
Founded 1937
Current details
Ground(s)
Coach(s) Sylvain Houles
Competition League 1

Toulouse Olympique are a French professional rugby league team from Toulouse, in the southwest of France. They were founded on 22 October, in 1937 two years after the founding of the French Rugby League Federation. Between 1995 and 2002 the club were known as Spacers de Toulouse, due to links with the local aerospace industry. In 2009, Toulouse joined the Co-operative Championship after being denied a Super League licence. They returned to the Elite One Championship after the spell was considered unsuccessful. There were no finishes higher than 8th place. However, they still continued to play in the Northern Rail Cup.

Toulouse have played in six Lord Derby Cup finals, but have never won the competition; they have however been champions of France on four occasions, as well as runners-up in five years.

For 2016 Toulouse will again join the RFL system, this time in League 1, the third tier of English/European rugby league.

History

In March 1937, the Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII decided to establish rugby league in Toulouse. They bought the Arnauné stadium (Stade des Minimes) and formed Toulouse Olympique.

The first match Toulouse played was on 24 October 1937 against Albi. In 1938, Toulouse Olympique merged with another club in the city, Galia Club Toulousain. In 1939, TO reached the Cup final in France for the first time. During the war years, like other rugby league clubs in France, the club opted to play rugby union following the ban on rugby league by the Vichy regime in France. In 1944, Toulouse reached the Semi-Final of the French Cup in rugby union. In the meantime the Arnauné stadium was confiscated by the State, like most of the assets of the French Federation of rugby league. Following liberation by the Allies and the restoration of the French Championship, the club were on the losing side twice when they met Carcassonne in the finals for the 1944-45 and 1945-46 competitions. After a decade away from the top, another strong team emerged that included Pierre Lacaze and Georges Aillères.

In 1995, Toulouse Olympique changed their name to Spacers de Toulouse (or Toulouse Spacers) and kept this until 2002. In 2000, the club won the championship. Toulouse's ambition to join the European Super League grew but in 2003, their application was rejected by the Rugby Football League in favour of Catalans Dragons.

In 2005 Olympique became the first French club ever to reach the semi-finals of the Rugby League Challenge Cup, when they defeated European Super League side Widnes 40-24. They went on to lose 56-18 to world champions Leeds in the semi-final at the Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield.

2009-2011: The Championship

Toulouse players in a Championship match against Gateshead (June 2009).

Toulouse Olympique XIII's main objective is to be accepted into Super League. In 2006, the Rugby Football League decided to introduce franchising for the 2009 Super League season, with the number of clubs being increased from 12 to 14. Toulouse were one of the applicants, but failed to win a licence, losing out to the 12 existing Super League clubs, Salford, and the Crusaders. After the announcement however, the Rugby Football League invited the French Rugby League Federation to nominate a team to enter the second tier Co-operative Championship (previously National League One) for the 2009 season.[1] Toulouse Olympique planned to apply in the next round of franchising to be accepted in Super League in 2012.

In their first season in Championship, in 2009, Toulouse Olympique suffered a bad start with a lack of any real pre-season game (while other Championship sides had friendlies and Northern Rail Cup games). In their first match of the Championship, the Toulouse Olympique team, largely revamped relative to the previous year, suffered a massive defeat in Widnes 70-0. The rest of the season, however, went better with the team at one point taking the 4th place in the league. However the loss of their play maker Nathan Wynn for several weeks in the defeat against Featherstone Rovers at home in June marked the beginning of a series of defeats which in the end prevented the team from achieving their goal of reaching the playoff in their first year. The team finished 10th out of 11 teams in their first season.

At the start of the 2010 season, the club made significant additions to the team with two players coming from Super League clubs (Vincent Duport and Simon Worrall) and three good French players from Elite 1 sides (Julien Lasserre, Romain Mencarini and Yoan Tisseyre). Toulouse also made an agreement with the Catalans Dragons to register 3 dual players from the Super League team. To qualify for a place in Super League, the club needed to be in the Grand Final in 2012, and therefore planned to finish in one of the two top spots, which give the highest chance to reach the Grand Final in the playoffs.

At the end of 2011 it was announced that Toulouse Olympique would be returning to the French League for the 2012 season onwards.

2012-2015: Return to France

Toulouse returned to the French Elite One Championship in 2012 after failing to get into Super League and having been relegated from the Championship. They failed to make the Championship Final for the 2012-13 season but won the Championship Final back to back in 2013-14 and 2014-15 season.

2016-Onwards: League 1

In 2015 the RFL announced that Toulouse Olympique would return to the English rugby league system after they were accepted to play in League 1 from the 2016 season in their second bid to be promoted into Super League.

2016 squad

* Announced on 25 February 2016:

2016 Squad Numbers

No Player Position Former club
1 Mark Kheirallah Full Back, Scrum Half Newtown Jets
2 Tony Maurel Wing, Full Back AS Valsonne
3 Bastien Ader Centre, Wing Toulouse Broncos
4 Kuni Minga Centre, Wing TNA Simbu Lions
5 Gregory White Wing, Full Back Catalans Dragons
6 Johnathon Ford Stand Off Newtown Jets
7 Arthur Gonzalez-Trique Scrum Half, Loose Forward Sheffield Eagles
8 Clement Boyer Prop Halifax RLFC
9 Kane Bentley Hooker Boston Thirteens
10 Samy Masselot Prop, Second Row Wakefield Wildcats
11 Sébastien Planas Second Row Catalans Dragons
12 Rhys Curran Second Row Villeneuve Leopards
13 Andrew Bentley Loose Forward, Utility Boston Thirteens
14 Mourad Kriouache Hooker, Half Back AS Carcassonne
15 Maxime Puech Prop Toulouse Broncos
16 Bastien Canet Prop, Second Row AS Carcassonne
17 Anthony Marion Stand Off, Loose Forward Toulouse Broncos
18 Tyla Hepi Loose Forward, Stand Off Whitehaven RLFC
Nicolas Pomie Second Row Toulouse Broncos
Christopher Denis Hooker Toulouse Broncos
Cedric Mazars Prop Toulouse Broncos
22 Danny Hulme Full Back, Stand Off Widnes Vikings
Paul Marcon Wing, Full Back Toulouse Broncos
Etienne Ferret Half Back Toulouse Broncos
Gavin Garguerite Wing, Full Back Toulouse Broncos
Nicolas Bianchini Centre Toulouse Broncos
Damien Wastjer Hooker Toulouse Broncos
HC Sylvain Houles Head Coach Wakefield Wildcats
AC Damien Couturier Assistant Coach Hull Kingston Rovers

2016 transfers

Gains

Player Signed from Contract Length Date
France Rhys Curran Villeneuve Leopards 1 Year October 2015
France Bastien Canet AS Carcassonne 1 Year December 2015
New Zealand Tyla Hepi Whitehaven RLFC 1 Year January 2016

Losses

Player Signed for Contract Length Date
France Bruno Ormeno Retirement N/A October 2015
Australia Aaron Wood Released
France Florian Quintilla Released

Honours

Average attendance

TO seasons

References

  1. ↑ http://www.therfl.co.uk/~therflc/nationalleague/news_item.php?id=11224
  2. ↑ La Depeche, Estimation from the newspaper La Depeche
  3. ↑ Championship results, championshipstats.rlfans.com

External links

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