Sylvain Houles on last night’s missed opportunity and the difficulties of recruitment

Last night, Toulouse made their Super League debut against Huddersfield Giants.

The French side started well scoring the opening try of the game through former Warrington man Matty Russell and even led 10-0. But trailed 16-10 at the break before losing the second half 26-4 as they succumbed to a 42-14 defeat in their first game in the top flight.

After starting so well, it felt like Toulouse missed out on an opportunity to get an early win on the board as they look to secure Super League survival.

After such a fantastic start, Toulouse coach Sylvain Houles noted that he was indeed disappointed at missing the opportunity to turn the 10-0 lead into a win in an interview with Sky Sports: “Yes [it was a missed opportunity] I believed we needed to start strong and this game we didn’t win and it was the first one. I agree that seven is about how many you need to win. We need to win games at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about.”

Making things tougher for the French side is the fact they already have a small squad which was made smaller by the loss of skipper Johnathan Ford and the unclear future of Mark Kheirallah.

It’s assumed they could dip into the transfer market with Hull FC fullback Jamie Shaul being linked with a move, however Houles has said there’s nothing concrete yet as he told Sky: “I always knew, but it’s tough when you’re in Super League there’s obviously not many players left on the market. So, it’s always a hard one. We knew what we wanted but obviously we’ve had a few issues and we need more players now. We’ll work on it.

“No new signings yet, we’re not too sure. Nothing’s concrete.”