After the enthralling 38-26 points comeback win against fellow relegation candidates Wakefield Trinity at the magic weekend, Toulouse Olympique’s super league survival became a little more possible.
This was followed up by another largely significant 20-6 points victory over Leeds Rhinos on Saturday evening in France seeing them climb off the bottom of the table for the first time this season and manager Sylvain Houles knows he has to keep the squad grounded as they have two huge home fixtures next against Hull FC and Salford.
With the Olympians on the same points as Trinity, there is still a lot to play for in the closing stages of the season and now it is a matter of whether they can carry this huge momentum and feel good factor and complete a great escape!
Beating St Helens at home and losing to the Wigan Warriors by just one point throughout the season has proved that they are no pushovers. With a burning desire to achieve what the Leigh Centurions failed to do so last season and survive the drop the chances are greater for the current championship leaders, with 5 wins against the champions and teams around them in the table the French side have found themselves in a position that they would have snapped up if offered at the beginning of the season.
Currently, it’s Toulouse and Wakefield head to head to remain in super league and the next few weeks see the Yorkshire side with the tougher run on paper, St Helens visit Belle Vue stadium next followed by a trip to the in-form Castleford Tigers then Catalan Dragons and Wigan Warriors at home.
After Toulouse’s consecutive home fixtures they face Hull KR and Warrington Wolves away. Both those sides haven’t had the best of seasons so far so they will be determined and have the belief they can take the majority if not maximum points from all forthcoming fixtures.
Toulouse has taken huge strides this season and was favourites to go down at the start, they have added extra ammunition throughout the competition with the likes of Ollie Ashall-Bott who has helped turn their fortunes around with 5 tries from 16 games so far, with them paying for their counterparts flights for home fixtures they have had more to contend with than everybody else in the league and if they do win the fight the stay in Europe’s elite rugby league competition it will help the sport grow further in France as they get prepared to host the world cup in 2025.
Three wins on the bounce since the start of July sees them 11th ahead of Wakefield on score difference and another win against Salford on Saturday would see them 2 points behind Warrington in 10th and potentially blow the relegation run in wide open with them scheduled to play each other at the start of August.
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