Toulouse. Sylvain Houlès: “Saint-Helens is the best”
Still looking for a first success, the Toulouse team received Saint-Helens, defending champion and undefeated leader.
The first steps of Toulouse Olympique in the Super League were not easy. After five days, Toulouse are in last place, still looking for a first success. And it is not the reception of the chef Saint-Helens, Saturday, which has something to reassure Sylvain Houlès and his troops.
The Toulouse coach is well aware of the challenge that awaits his men and when we talk about the defending champion, the TO technician is under the spell: “It’s what is best in Europe, both offensively and defensively. They make a lot of effort and put a lot of intensity into each meeting”, he confides, admiringly. “They are capable of attacking the opponent for almost 80 minutes, they are the reigning three-time champions, so we have to expect a big
game on Saturday for us.”
An exciting planned meeting for Toulouse even if the challenge seems immense. Especially since the defeat at Wakefield, last Friday, left regrets. “We are disappointed not to have recovered points from Wakefield. This will serve as a lesson to us, the group still needs to mature”, analyzes Sylvain Houlès. “Despite good pace and great intensity throughout the game, there were no injuries to report, which is good for us.”
From Monday, the Toulousains therefore went back to work in order to analyze these shortcomings, these errors which prevented them from switching to the right side at the start of the season. “We really need to better manage weak times, get to the end of our chains and rely on our footwork,” insists Sylvain Houlès. “We have Lucas Albert and Tony Gigot who have a very good kicking game and they need to use it more. Against Wakefield, we did not manage to go to the end of our chains, we were playing our fifth down at the hand in the 50 meters. These are things that we will not have to do again against the Saints, because they are used to putting a lot of pressure.
The message got through. It remains to straighten the situation and to surpass oneself to attempt… the feat!