Toulouse away first up. Least amount of time for fans to book up flights etc.



Got to expect that from the RFL as we get the rough end of a lot of decisions they make. That been said finishing 6th in this league is poor so only ourselves to blame.

Fortunately I am a glass half full kind of person. Having travelled to Toulouse For the first game I am glad it is the first game and also that it is away. Get it out of the way and then focus on winning the rest !!

The reality of where we are this season statistically in the league gives us every chance of still qualifying for the play offs. We are only 3 points behind 3rd place , York ,who we have beaten twice already. We lost to fifth place with the last kick of the game and we got blown away early in the season by Doncaster/Hull, so I believe all these games are winnable now. However we are going to have to step up our performances in order to do this which has not really been forthcoming of late. Here's hoping.

Toulouse 48 Cougars 14



MOM - Rhys Curran

Clearly I have misunderstood the Super 8s concept, I'd assumed that the points accumulated through the season were zeroed for the super 8s competition, not too sure I see the point of it now!

The point is that teams are rewarded for their efforts, or lack of it over 14 league games.

The incentive is to get into the subsequent top five in order to still have a chance of promotion. The system is based on merit so what's wrong with that ?

The only one where points are actually returned to zero, is the bottom 4 of SL, top 4 of CC, because they've been playing different teams up till now. All others just carry the points forward.

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it [iper se[/i. Just my understanding of it, we may as well have played everybody home and away then gone on to the play offs. Just my two penneth worth

.

The home and away system plus play-offs would have made the season finish in about november, hence the truncated version I assume. Home and away plus p-o's would have been great with a 10 team league for example. I don't think the present system is perfect but given there are 15 teams it's not that bad in my humble opinion.

Well, just exploring the league a little further. Consider if the championship is increase by two teams, sure their season is extended by 2 games but at the end, as with super league and the championship, the bottom two teams could play in the league 1 play offs. Also since league 1 is now reduced in size then home and away fixtures are possible if we start earlier. Lets face it the super league season starts a whole four weeks before league 1.



Sure, we have the Ipro cup to contend with but when I first started watching Rugby league we played a lot of games, twice a week wasn't unusual. Besides the league fixtures, we had the Yorkshire/Lancashire Cup, the John Player Cup, the Floodlit Trophy and Challenge Cup ................ happy days!

Must win today (obviously) to have any chance of reaching the play offs, that would leave us with two matches Barrow away, I don't think we'll get anything there just have to keep the score down, then York at home another must win. Whereas Doncaster have Rochdale and York away then Skolars at home, I only see Doncaster getting 2 points against Skolars. So we end up on the same points, for and against will be important for us to reach the play offs where we will probably play Barrow away, hopefully we will have learnt something about them from our next match.



[iTrying to keep the faith![/i

Depending on which team turns out Doncaster could win all 4 , we played well at Hunslet & didn't do too bad against Toulouse.

Going to be a tough game today for both sides !

Is it over for this year, did anybody hear the fat lady singing yesterday? I guess there's still a chance but I'm totally peed off!