2009 Toulouse Olympique season

2009 was the first year of participation to the Championship for the Toulouse Olympique rugby league club. Toulouse was allowed special dispensation to field five overseas players in their first season. The new Toulouse team was composed of 9 full-time players, 13 part-time players and 10 members of the Toulouse academy.^[1] With a largely renewed team and a lack of preseason (only friendly with the Dragons cancelled due to the weather), the TO started its season with a series of defeat. Its first match in the Championship proved to be too much of a challenge with a hammering 70-0 at Widnes in front of Sky cameras. However, after the victory away against Batley, the TO accumulated victories and looked on track for a top 4 spot.

The match against Featherstone at home in June however marked another turning point in the season. With the injury of the play maker Nathan Wynn and several referee decisions going against the team, the TO lost the match. Without Wynn, at the crucial time where the team was to be opposed to the favourite of the Championship, the TO lost 4 games in a row. With Wynn coming back a win away at Featherstone was a short lived success. An unexpected defeat at home against Gateshead in battle for relegation removed almost any chance left of making the playoffs. Without much stakes left in the Championship (given the absence of relegation for the TO in its first 3 seasons in Championship), Toulouse lost also two of its last 3 matches at Leigh and Halifax.

The final ranking of Toulouse, 10 out of 11, does not represent fairly the quality of a team who won 9 out of 20 matches in a very competitive division where the final champion, Barrow, won only 13 of its matches.

Fixtures and results[]

Competition	Round	Opponent	Result	Score	Home/Away	Venue	Attendance	Date	Online video	Photos
Challenge Cup	3	Sheffield Eagles	Loss	22-6	Away	Don Valley Stadium	1,554	08/03/2009		1
Co-operative Championship	1	Widnes Vikings	Loss	70-0	Away	Halton Stadium	5,074	12/03/2009		1
Co-operative Championship	2	Sheffield Eagles	Loss	12-18	Home	Stade des Minimes	1,923	21/03/2009	Full match[permanent dead link]	1[permanent dead link], 2
Co-operative Championship	3	Whitehaven	Loss	40-26	Away	Recreation Ground	1,225	28/03/2009	Match extract	1
Co-operative Championship	5	Batley Bulldogs	Win	22-60	Away	Mount Pleasant	662	13/04/2009		1
Co-operative Championship	6	Leigh Centurions	Win	46-10	Home	Stade Ernest-Argeles	2,000	18/04/2009	Full match[permanent dead link]	1[permanent dead link]
Co-operative Championship	7	Doncaster	Win	18-48	Away	Keepmoat Stadium	1,089	26/04/2009		1
Co-operative Championship	8	Whitehaven	Win	38-18	Home	Stade des Minimes	2,300	02/05/2009	Match extract	1[permanent dead link]
Co-operative Championship	10	Barrow Raiders	Win	22-14	Home	Stade des Minimes	2,900	16/05/2009	Full match[permanent dead link]	1[permanent dead link]
Co-operative Championship	11	Sheffield Eagles	Loss	58-12	Away	Don Valley Stadium	809	23/05/2009		1, 2
Co-operative Championship	12	Gateshead Thunder	Win	16-52	Away	Gateshead International Stadium	516	07/06/2009		1, 2, 3
Co-operative Championship	13	Batley Bulldogs	Win	32-24	Home	Stade des Minimes	2,176	13/06/2009	Full match[permanent dead link]	1
Co-operative Championship	14	Featherstone Rovers	Loss	16-32	Home	Stade Ernest-Argeles	2,000	27/06/2009	Full match	1[permanent dead link]
Co-operative Championship	15	Barrow Raiders	Loss	30-22	Away	Craven Park	2,456	02/07/2009
Co-operative Championship	16	Halifax	Loss	16-54	Home	Stade des Minimes	2,697	18/07/2009	Full match	1, 2[permanent dead link], 3
Co-operative Championship	17	Widnes Vikings	Loss	24-32	Home	Stade Ernest-Argeles	3,206	25/07/2009	Full match	1
Co-operative Championship	18	Featherstone Rovers	Win	18-34	Away	Chris Moyles Stadium	1,346	01/08/2009	Match extract
Co-operative Championship	19	Gateshead Thunder	Loss	20-48	Home	Stade des Minimes	1,386	08/08/2009	Match highlights	1[permanent dead link]
Co-operative Championship	20	Leigh Centurions	Loss	26-6	Away	Leigh Sports Village	1,502	15/08/2009		1
Co-operative Championship	21	Doncaster	Win	52-6	Home	Stade des Minimes	1,200	22/08/2009
Co-operative Championship	22	Halifax	Loss	34-18	Away	Shay Stadium	2,128	05/09/2009		1

League table[]

2009 Co-operative Championship v t
#	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	BP	Pts
1	Barrow Raiders	20	13	0	7	632	261	271	5	44
2	Halifax	20	13	0	7	714	476	238	4	43
3	Sheffield Eagles	20	11	0	9	635	447	188	9	42
4	Widnes Vikings	20	11	0	9	649	438	211	6	39
5	Whitehaven	20	12	0	8	565	567	−2	3	39
6	Featherstone Rovers	20	12	0	8	619	524	95	1	37
7	Gateshead Thunder	20	9	2	9	610	657	−47	3	32
8	Batley Bulldogs	20	8	2	10	536	620	−84	6	32
9	Leigh Centurions	20	9	0	11	426	572	−146	5	32
10	Toulouse Olympique XIII	20	9	0	11	556	582	−26	3	30(a)
11	Doncaster	20	1	0	19	257	955	−698	5	-1(b)

2009 Squad and players' statistics[]

	Player	Appearances	Tries	Goals	Drop	Points	Position	Former club	International	Status	Note
1	Rory Bromley	18	12	0	0	48	Fullback	Redcliffe Dolphins	-	Full-time
2		16	3	0	0	12	Winger	Catalans Dragons	-	Part-time
3	Sébastien Planas	18	8	0	0	32	Centre	Toulouse Olympique	Yes	Full-time
4	Damien Couturier	20	12	12	0	72	Centre	Toulouse Olympique	-	Full-time
5		19	9	2	0	46	Fullback	Toulouse Olympique	-	Part-time
6	Constant Villegas	19	8	0	0	32	Stand off	Toulouse Olympique	Yes	Part-time
7	Nathan Wynn	17	5	76	0	172	Scrum half	Sydney Bulls	-	Full-time
8	Brendan Worth	19	0	0	0	0	Prop	Penrith Panthers	-	Full-time
9	Martin Mitchell	18	6	0	0	24	Hooker	Parramatta Eels reserve	-	Full-time
10	Mathieu Griffi	18	5	0	0	20	Prop	Catalans Dragons	Yes	Full-time
11	Timothy Wynn	18	3	0	0	12	Second row	Wentworthville Magpies	-	Full-time
12		16	3	0	0	0	Second row	Toulouse Olympique	-	Part-time
13	Eric Anselme	17	4	0	0	16	Loose forward	Leeds Rhinos	Yes	Full-time
14	Antoni Maria	19	4	0	0	16	Second row	St Gaudens	-	Toulouse academy
15	Jérôme Gout	0	0	0	0	0	Prop	Toulouse Olympique	-	Part-time	Injured all season
16	Olivier Pramil	10	1	0	0	4	Prop	New York Knights	-	Part-time
17		6	0	0	0	0	Second row	St Gaudens	-	Toulouse academy
18		7	2	0	0	8	Winger	Toulouse Olympique	-	Part-time
19		2	0	0	0	0	Scrum half	RC Albi XIII	-	Toulouse academy
20	Sylvain Houles	16	1	0	0	0	Loose forward	Toulouse Olympique	-	Part-time
21	Bruno Ormeno	10	4	0	0	16	Centre	Toulouse Olympique	-	Part-time
22	Nicolas Fauré	13	2	0	0	8	Prop	Toulouse Olympique	-	Part-time
23	Cédric Gay	9	4	0	0	0	Hooker	Toulouse Olympique	-	Part-time
-		3	1	0	0	0	Winger	Toulouse Olympique	-	Toulouse academy
-		1	2	0	0	0	Winger	Toulouse Olympique	-	Toulouse academy
-		3	0	0	0	0	Winger		-
-	Jean-Christophe Borlin	12	1	0	0	4	Prop	St Gaudens	Yes		Arrived in May
-	Yoan Tisseyre	3	2	0	0	0	Second row	Lezignan	-		Arrived in the summer
-	Carlos Mendes Varela	4	2	0	0	0	Winger	Lyon	-		Arrived in the summer
-	Florian Quintilla	3	0	0	0	0	Second row	Catalans Dragons	-		On loan one month

• Source : www.championshipstats.rlfans.com, FFR13^{[permanent dead link]}. Are only included players who played at least one game in the season.

External links[]

• Toulouse Olympique official website (in French)

References[]