French rugby league holds its breath as Toulouse fight to avoid relegation

The bottom of the Super League table makes miserable reading for those of us who hoped Toulouse Olympique would survive or even thrive this season. But it is to 2024 that we should look: that is when Toulouse need to be jostling for a seat at the top table, ready to take up their place when any new format for the competition is confirmed.

With only two wins from their first 15 games in Super League, you could assume Toulouse are already down. Not so, although their destiny will likely be decided in July. Even if they lose at Wigan on Friday night, they will only be six points adrift going into their next game at home to Hull KR. Then come successive meetings with three of the four teams immediately above them: Wakefield at the Magic weekend, and Leeds and Salford at home.

Toulouse could win three of those and be revved up for the trips to Hull KR and Warrington that follow. The club hopes the local public gets behind them in their month of need – fans can buy tickets to all four of home games in July for just €25 – knowing they need wins now given that they face title-chasing Wigan, Catalans and St Helens, in their final four games of the campaign.

Coach Sylain Houles is making all the right noises: yes, it has been difficult but, no, we have not given up. Even if they finish bottom, the perceptive Houles will have completed an astonishing feat: his Toulouse teams will have finished higher up the RFL ladder in each of his nine seasons in charge. Few coaches in world sport can say that. Toulouse will surely be fielding enquiries for the 40-year-old if they are relegated.

Their season could so easily have been different. Had Toulouse won rather than lost by last-gasp drop goals against Wigan and Huddersfield, or beaten one