T'Other Side: Toulouse Olympique

  

Head Coach: Sylvain Houles

Sylvain Houles began his tenure as head coach of Toulouse Olympique for the 2013 season so he is now in his 11th season in the post.

Most of his playing career was as a centre or winger although towards the end he moved to half back or loose forward. He started with XIII Catalans (the former name of Catalans Dragons) and then in 2000 entered Super League with the Huddersfield and Sheffield Giants and later London Broncos. Houles also played for Dewsbury Rams and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats before returning to France with Toulouse. He played 14 times for France.

 

Captain: Harrison Hansen

 

Despite being born in New Zealand has spent the vast majority of his life in Europe. His father, Shane, played for both Salford and Swinton. As a youngster, Harrison went to high school in Swinton and played for Folly Lane ARL before joining the Wigan Warriors Academy. He made his first team début at Wigan in 2004. After 9 years playing for Wigan he then spent two years at Salford, three years at Leigh and two years at Widnes before joining Toulouse in 2020.

He has played internationally for both New Zealand and Samoa.

 

Dual Registration and Loan signings

 

Toulouse have a dual registration agreement with Catalans Dragons. Catalans players Loan Castano, Tiaki Chan, Mathieu Laguerre, Bastien Scimone and Ugo Tison have appeared for Toulouse in 2023.

Harvie Hill was on loan from Wigan earlier on this year and they currently have Brazilian prop, Ramon Silva, on loan from Wigan. Greg Richards, also a prop, is on a season long loan from Hull KR.

 

 

The Fev connection

 

For obvious reasons there are only 8 who have played for both Fev and Toulouse, and 5 of those are in this year’s Rovers squad.

 

None of the 2023 Toulouse squad have ever played for Fev.