2009 Onwards
Toulouse Olympique XIII's main objective is to be accepted into Super League. In 2006, the Rugby Football League 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 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.
Toulouse Olympique will apply in the next round of franchising to be accepted in Super League in 2012.
In its first season in Championship, in 2009, the Toulouse Olympique suffered a bad start with a lack of any real pre-season game (while other Championship sides had friendlies and Northern Rail Cup games). In its first match of the Championship, the Toulouse Olympique team, largely revamped relative to the previous year suffered a massive defeat in Widnes 70-0. The rest of the season showed however great capacity in this new team who at some point took the 4th place in the league. However the loss of their play maker Nathan Wynn for several weeks in the defeat against Featherstone at home in June marked the beginning of a series of defeat which in the end prevented the team to reach its goal to make the playoff in their first year. The team finished 10th out of 11 teams in their first season.
At the start of the 2010 season, the club has made significant additions to the team with two players coming from Super League clubs (Vincent Duport and Simon Worrall) and three good French players from Elite 1 sides (Carlos Mendes Varela, Romain Mencarini, Yoan Tisseyre). The Toulouse Olympique will also benefit from an agreement with the Catalans Dragons to register 3 dual players from the Super League team. To qualify for a place in Super League, the club needs to be in the Grand Final in 2012. The club will therefore be looking into finishing in one of the two top spots which give the highest chance to reach the Grand Final in the playoffs.
At the end of the 2011 it was announced that Toulouse Olympique would be returning back to the French League for the 2012 season onwards, although they would still be featuring in the Northern Rail Cup.
Read more about this topic: Toulouse Olympique