By SYLVAIN HOULES
WE WANT to be competitive, tough and play with a certain style and expression with the ball, that’s what you can expect from us.
We achieved everything we wanted to in pre-season – even though it also rains in France a lot in winter – and ticked every box, I’m confident in the way we prepared. There’s no pressure on us so I’m excited to see how we go.
We changed our squad a little bit last year. Six players left and we signed replacements with the vision of being in Super League in 2026, so we haven’t had too much disruption on hearing we were in it quite late, the job was pretty much done.
We would like a little more depth but I’m really happy with the recruitment and how we’ve gone so far.
I don’t think we would have been in Super League if we hadn’t won the Championship last year – we understand it and need to bring something too.
It was important for us to win our first game away from home in the opening round at Wakefield. That said something and gave us a lot of confidence. We’ve found a way around the travel so that’s no excuse, but Super League is a different story every week.
We need to be competitive and make sure we grow the game. I do believe that we’ve got something and we can help the Super League to develop and be better.
It’s huge having two French sides in Super League again and should have big benefits for the game over here.
There’s a real buzz around it and we saw that when we played Catalans in our pre-season friendly, it was ferocious and sets up the next three games between us.
All three promoted clubs have worked hard and looked at what they can do to make sure they are not just numbers and that is a credit to them all.
They’ve competed hard in every game so far but it’s a very, very long season and that is going to test the depth of the squads, and that’s the big difference in Super League.
I loved the first two games! The rugby was a little bit better and more exciting. Compared to when we came up in 2022 our squad is a little bit younger, fitter, sharper with more athleticism and they play with their heart.
We saw what we needed to be then, have worked hard to get back and are better than before. I don’t want to disrespect the players and the team we had then, but we’ve evolved.
We’ve worked really hard the last two pre-seasons, and the staff are doing a tremendous job in terms of preparation and on attack and defence. Our systems are good.
It’s a good group of players – they love each other’s company, are very tight and do things together. And that’s a big thing, the success of last year helped in that.
It’s a different environment to four years ago and also we learned a few lessons from that time. You ask them anything and they say, “we are going to do it, coach, we are with you.”
The better weather will also suit us; we want to play and we love being at home. We want the game to be fast – that suits us – so hopefully the new rules will work for us.
My ambition for the club and French rugby league is to take a fixture to where our Toulouse soccer team play, the Stadium de Toulouse, previously named Stadium Municipal.
They are in the first division, it’s a big ground and the French championship frand final used to be played there a long time ago and we are hoping, one day, to bring rugby league back there.
A big derby there against Catalans would bring major advertising and interest for our sport and be an achievement for us.
I don’t think we’re ready yet for a French presence in Las Vegas. If you go there you need to bring large numbers of supporters so it’s not for us yet. But one day we’d love to be part of it because it looks so exciting.