Daryl Powell insists Warrington will not underestimate Toulouse
Warrington coach Daryl Powell insists his side won’t take Super League newcomers Toulouse for granted when they travel to the south of France on Saturday.
Toulouse went the Championship season unbeaten last season as they clinched promotion to Super League.
Sylvain Houles’ side have lost both of their matches in their maiden season in the top flight so far against Huddersfield and Salford.
But Powell is not taking the French side lightly as they prepare to travel to the Stade Ernest Wallon.
He said: “I think they’ve had a really difficult situation with losing players, that’s really tough. They are pivotal players as well, they lost a half-back (Johnathon Ford) and full-back (Mark Kheirallah) who have been huge over there. That is going to take a little bit of time to adapt.
“They will look for recruits as well. They’ve been working hard in that regard but the market is not that fluid at the moment. They’ve signed (Olly) Ashall-Bott.
“I wouldn’t write them off. If you going into games against Toulouse writing them off, then you are asking for trouble.”
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Powell has made a good start to life as Warrington head coach, with two wins from as many matches.
The Wolves have beaten Leeds and Castleford, but Powell insists they will not be underestimating Toulouse in any way.
He told Love Rugby League: “They’ve gone through the process of promotion and they deserve to be where they are.
“The pandemic has created a really difficult situation for them which they are going to have to work their way through.
“They deserve to be there, they are very passionate about rugby league in that part of France and I think we’ll feel that in the crowd tomorrow.
“They deserve to be where they are, but we have to make sure they don’t get their first win in Super League.”
Although it’s the first competitive meeting between the two sides, they have played against each other before.
Toulouse travelled to the Halliwell Jones Stadium back in January 2015, and beat the Wolves 26-6. That game was prior to Toulouse’s return to the RFL pyramid.
Joe Philbin played for a youthful Wolves side in that game, the only survivor from Tony Smith’s squad.
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