Toulouse Olympique

Olympic crest
Club information
Full name	Toulouse Olympique XIII
Nickname(s)	TO
Colours	Navy blue, white and sky blue
Founded	1937
Current details
Ground(s)	Stade des Minimes (7,000)
Coach(s)	Gilles Dumas
Captain(s)	Sylvain Houles
Competition	Championship

Toulouse Olympique are a French professional rugby league team from Toulouse, in the southwest of France. They were founded on 22 October, in 1937 two years after the founding of the French Rugby League Federation. Between 1995 and 2002 the club were known as Spacers de Toulouse, due to links with the local aerospace industry. They currently play in the Co-operative Championship, the second tier competition below the Super League Europe, having joined in time for the 2009 season. This followed being denied a Super League licence.

The club has played in six Lord Derby Cup finals, but has never won the competition, they have however been champions of France on four occasions, as well as runners-up in five years.

[edit] History

In March 1937, the Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII decided to establish rugby league in Toulouse, they bought the Arnauné stadium and formed Toulouse Olympique.

The first match Toulouse played was on 24 October 1937 against Albi. In 1938, Toulouse Olympique merged with another club in the city, Galia Club Toulousain. In 1939, TO reached for the first time the Cup final in France. During the war years, the club opted (like other rugby league clubs in France) to play rugby union, following the ban on rugby league by the Vichy regime in France. In 1944, Toulouse reached the Semi-Final of the French Cup in rugby union. In the mean time the Arnauné stadium wass confiscated by the State like most of the assets of the French Federation of rugby league. Following liberation by the Allies and the restoration of the French Championship, the club was on the losing side twice when they met Carcassonne in the finals for the 1944-45 and 1945-46 competitions. After a decade away from the top, another strong team emerged that included Pierre Lacaze and Georges Aillères.

In 1995, Toulouse Olympique changed their name to Spacers de Toulouse (or Toulouse Spacers) and kept this until 2002. In 2000, the club won the championship. Toulouse's ambition to join Super League grew but in 2003, their application was rejected by the Rugby Football League in favour of Union Treiziste Catalane.

In 2005 Olympique became the first French club ever to reach the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, when they defeated Super League side Widnes Vikings 40-24. They went on to lose 56-18 to world champions Leeds Rhinos in the semi-final at the Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield.

[edit] 2009

Toulouse players in a Championship match against Gateshead (June 2009).

Toulouse Olympique XIII's main objective is to be accepted into Super League. In 2006, the RFL decided to introduce franchising for the 2009 Super League season with the number of clubs being increased from 12 to 14. Toulouse were one of the applicants, but failed to win a licence, losing out to the 12 existing Super League clubs, Salford City Reds and the Celtic Crusaders. After the announcement however, the Rugby Football League invited the French Rugby League Federation to nominate a team to enter the second tier Co-operative Championship (previously National League One) for the 2009 season. [1]

Toulouse Olympique will apply in the next round of franchising to be accepted in Super League in 2012.

[edit] 2009 Squad

No	Nat	Player	Age	Position	Former Club	International
1		Rory Bromley	24	Centre	Redcliffe Dolphins	-
2		Sébastien Payan	23	Winger	Catalans Dragons	-
3		Sébastien Planas	25	Centre	Toulouse Olympique	Yes
4		Damien Couturier	28	Centre	Toulouse Olympique	-
5		Joris Canton	28	Winger	Toulouse Olympique	-
6		Constant Villegas	23	Scrum Half	Toulouse Olympique	Yes
7		Nathan Wynn	23	Scrum Half	Sydney Bulls	-
8		Brendan Worth	25	Prop	Penrith Panthers	-
9		Martin Mitchell	24	Hooker	Parramatta Eels reserve	-
10		Mathieu Griffi	26	Prop	Catalans Dragons	Yes
11		Timothy Wynn	24	Second Row	Parramatta Eels reserve	-
12		Mathieu Almarcha	25	Second Row	Toulouse Olympique	-
13		Eric Anselme	31	Second Row	Leeds Rhinos	Yes
14		Antoni Maria	22	Second Row	St Gaudens	-
15		Jérôme Gout	23	Prop	Toulouse Olympique	-
16		Olivier Pramil	30	Prop	New York Knights	Yes
17		Yohan Barthau	23	Second Row	St Gaudens	-
18		Adrien Viala	27	Winger	Toulouse Olympique	-
19		Nicolas Delgal	21	Scrum Half	RC Albi XIII	-
20		Sylvain Houles	28	Loose Forward	Toulouse Olympique	Yes
21		Bruno Ormeno	26	Centre	Toulouse Olympique	-
22		Nicolas Faure	25	Hooker	Toulouse Olympique	-
23		Cédric Gay	27	Hooker	Toulouse Olympique	-
25		Teli Pelo	25	Winger	Ramonvillea	-
31		Clément Bienes	19	Winger	Toulouse Olympique	-
		Maxime Cicirko	19	Prop	Carpentras	-
		Mathias Erhart	21	Winger	Toulouse Olympique	-
		Yohann Gigord	20	Hooker	Toulouse Olympique	-
		Benjamin Guiral	21	Prop	Toulouse Olympique	-
		Kevin Larroyer	20	Second Row	Toulouse Olympique	-
		Kevin Liguoro	21	Winger	Toulouse Olympique	-
		Andrei Olari	21	Loose Forward	Toulouse Olympique	-
		Jean-Christophe Borlin	32	Prop	St Gaudens	Yes
		Carlos Mendes Varela	24	Centre	Lyon Villeurbanne	-
		Florian Quintilla	21	Second Row	Catalans Dragons	Yes
		Yoan Tisseyre	20	Second Row	Lezignan Sangliers	Yes

[edit] 2009 Transfers

[edit] 2009 Signings

Nat	Name	Moved From	Contract Length
	Nathan Wynn
	Thimoty Wynn
	Mattieu Griffi
	Martin Michell
	Eric Anselme
	Brendan Worth
	Sébastien Payan
	Antoni Maria
	Olivier Pramil
	Nicolas Delgal
	Yohan Barthau

[edit] 2009 Transfers

Nat	Name	Moved To	Date Departed
	Frederic Vaccari	Catalans Dragons	September 2008
			September 2008

[edit] Honours

• French Championship: 1965, 1973, 1975, 2000 (4 times)

[edit] Average attendance

• 2007-2008 : 1,500^[1]
• 2009 : 2,288 ^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ La Depeche, Estimation from the newspaper La Depeche
2. ^ Championship results, RFL website

[edit] External links

• Toulouse Olympique forum on rlfans.com (English and French)
• Matches' previews and reviews on Sang-et-or.net (English)

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