South Wales Scorpions v Toulouse Olympique XIII match preview

South Wales Scorpions are looking forward to Rugby League with a bit of international flavour this Sunday when Toulouse Olympique XIII are the visitors to Virginia Park in Caerphilly (kick-off 3pm).

The French are the only full-time side in League 1 and as such are favourites to win the title. So far they’ve won two from two but this is their first game away from home so we’ve yet to see how well they’ll travel.

The Scorpions are coming into this game off a large win at Oxford so will be full of confidence going into the big clash so an exciting competitive game is in prospect.

Greg Wilde returns to Swinton Lions following his month’s loan while Brad Hill and Scott Gregory are both injured. Mike Connor and Connor Farrer return from injury.

The Scorpions will also once again be boosted by the inclusion of Halifax players, Nick Rawsthorne, Aiden Hema, Billy Gaylor and Luke Nelmes, all of whom performed well in the Oxford win.

Scorpions’ coach Phil Carleton said: “Toulouse are obviously a very strong side with some very talented players. Our focus this week has been about us and us doing our jobs as well as we can.

“It has taken us a few weeks to find our feet and we still have a long way to go if we want to achieve our goals. That said, our win in Oxford a fortnight ago saw us take the first steps on the field towards being a better club.

“I don’t think that result was by chance or luck either. The boys worked really hard on the day and with the win, a little bit of pressure comes off everyone and just sets the tone for the rest of the year.

“We’re in good spirits at the moment but we face a hell of a test this weekend. Watching their results so far they’ve been pretty impressive but you want to pit yourself against the best. We’re looking forward to it, they’ll get some hospitality but also a bit of hostility as well!”

Toulouse Olympique haven’t played for three weeks. Their coach Sylvain Houles said: “It was nice to have a little bit of a rest. Two weekends off which is three weeks without a game is probably a little bit too much but it gave us a chance to fix some things after the All Golds game. They scored five tries which means we have to fix a few things like around the rucks – in the last 10 minutes we weren’t happy with our defence and our organisation.

“It gives us a good chance to go to South Wales and fix that and build for the big one against Leigh in the Challenge Cup.”

Tickets priced £8 for adults, £5 concessions and £1 for juniors are available from www.scorpionsrl.com.

TOULOUSE (from)

1 Mark Kheirallah

2 Tony Maurel

4 Gregory White

5 Kuni Minga

6 Johnathon Ford

7 Arthur Gonzalez-Trique

8 Clément Boyer

9 Kane Bentley

10 Samy Masselot

11 Sébastien Planas

12 Rhys Curran

13 Andrew Bentley

14 Mourad Kriouache

15 Maxime Puech

16 Bastien Canet

17 Anthony Marion

18 Tyla Hepi

Etienne Ferret

Gavin Marguerite

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