Tuesday 28 August 2018 19:21, UK
Toulouse will use Catalans Dragons' Wembley triumph as inspiration in their efforts to join them in Super League, although they are still unlikely to enter the Challenge Cup in 2019.
Toulouse reached the Cup semi-finals in 2005, losing out to Leeds at Huddersfield, but did not enter the competition in 2018, saying their resources do not stretch far enough.
The French club have the option because they are not full members of the Rugby Football League and a spokesman confirmed their stance is unlikely to change in the short term.
"Of course this success is really amazing and to compete in this great competition is always special," the spokesman said.
"However, we do not have the resources at the moment [all travel expenses, additional games etc] to enter it and I think it will be the case until we get to Super League."
The club have won one and lost one of their Super 8s Qualifiers so far and could take a significant step towards promotion with a win over struggling Widnes in Toulouse on Saturday.
Head coach Sylvain Houles, who played in Super League for London Broncos, Wakefield and Huddersfield, is expecting spin-offs from the Catalans' landmark triumph.
"It was a tremendous win for the Dragons," Houles said. "It could be a great thing for France, having won the World Cup in soccer and now the Challenge Cup with the Dragons.
"We spoke about it with the players on Monday to see what we could learn from it because most of the boys were watching it.
"And we said to ourselves it should be a source of inspiration for us, especially with their defence. That's something we've been working on for the last three weeks.
Catalans make history with Wembley win
"We did well against Halifax but now we need to go a notch higher against Widnes, who are Super League opposition."
Meanwhile, the Catalans are continuing to bask in the glory of their historic triumph as they became the first non-British winners in the cup's 121-year history.
The team were mobbed by a crowd estimated at between 700 and 1,000 on their return to the tiny airport in Perpignan in the early hours of Sunday morning while around 3,000 cheered them at the Castillet on Monday and more packed the
Stade Gilbert Brutus as the celebrations continued into a second night.
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Although there was no follow-up to Emmanuel Macron's good-luck message, the club say they have received congratulatory messages from French sport minister, Laura Flessel, and the president of Catalonia, Quim Torra.
The club have received messages from a string of famous sportsmen, including France's Olympic biathlon champion Martin Fourcade, Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy, ex-France goalkeeper Gregory Coupet and rugby union
international Mathieu Bastareaud.
Largely previously ignored by the national media, the Catalans success was marked by articles in L'Equipe, whose readers voted the Dragons team of the week, and the club featured on the Tout le Sport, the main sports magazine
programme in France, and on RCM, the biggest sports radio show in France.
Club chairman Bernard Guasch is hoping to parade the trophy when FC Barcelona host Girona in a Catalan derby on September 23.
