Dumas – Everyone wants to beat the French

Sheffield Eagles coach Mark Aston is still without Misi Taulapapa for Saturday’s Co-operative Championship fixture with Toulouse Olympique.

Samoan international Taulapapa is still in New Zealand awaiting his UK visa, meaning Quentin Laulu-Tagagae is set to keep his place at full-back after impressing during last week’s 28-10 win at York.
But Aston has called for further improvements from his side, despite last week’s impressive triumph.

“We are still a little disappointed as we let two tries in,” he said. “So we still have a bit of work to do. We’re still not fluent, but we scored some nice tries and stopped them (York) scoring near the end.”

Olympique have doubts over Josh Lewis (ankle) and Bruno Ormeno (hamstring) as they prepare for their trip to south Yorkshire.

Neither player took part in last week’s 35-6 defeat at Dewsbury, although should Lewis be fit he could be part of a formidable halfback partnership after Constant Villegas returned to the action at the Tetley’s Stadium.

Toulouse coach Gilles Dumas said: “We know every game we play in is going to be difficult. Everyone wants to beat the French team because it’s a special game for the opposition.”