Toulouse 14 Castleford Tigers 20: Olympique feeling the heat after defeat to red-hot Tigers

Super League’s newest club are facing a mountain to climb after 13 losses from 15, as their nearest relegation rivals Wakefield Trinity have hit winning form, leaving the Olympians stranded at the foot of the table.

Houles - a former Wakefield player - admitted: “We still believe. Obviously, the players and staff are fed up of losing.

“We’re not short of effort at every level at this club and we will fight until we cannot do so any more.

“We have belief and our job is still the same, there are 12 games to go and three teams above us on 10 points.

“So let’s go and get them, we know what we have to do.

“Every game now is a Million Pound game or Grand Final for us. We have to prepare for every one of those opportunities.”

Castleford dealt with heatwave conditions and an injury-hit squad to bring home the points.

Coach Lee Radford could only name an initial 20-man squad for this fixture but the patched-up Tigers fought tooth and nail in the blistering sunshine of the south of France.

It took until the 25th minute of the game before the tense deadlock was broken when Toulouse full-back Olly Ashall-Bott glided through some tiring defence. Chris Hankinson’s conversion put Toulouse 6-0 ahead.

But Castleford hit back when Ashall-Bott lost the ball in midfield and substitute Suaia Matagi forced his way over the line seven minutes from half-time, Danny Richardson’s conversion levelling the scores.

With the heat and humidity rising, it was the side that kept their cool that would come out on top in the second half and Matty Russell was the coolest on the pitch four minutes after the interval when he latched onto a sweeping move left to cross in the corner, Hankinson landing the conversion from the touchline to push Toulouse in front at 12-6.

Ryan Hampshire then raced 80 metres to set up field position for prop George Griffin to strike from short range between the posts, Richardson converting to level the scores once more.

A Richardson penalty two minutes later edged the Tigers in front but Toulouse hit back when they forced Mahe Fonua into touch and earned a penalty of their own, Hankinson stepping up to draw level once more.

Fonua made up for his mistake by forcing his way over the line with a powerful short-range burst in the 72nd minute, Richardson again on target to put Castleford in for a 20-14 win.

Tigers coach Radford praised his players for dealing with the heat. He said: “That’s a really rewarding result in such hot conditions.

“Prior to arriving they said it would be around the 31 degrees area but with the sun it felt much hotter pitch-side. It’s impossible to prepare for that, even the home team struggled but I can understand why they complete high and get very methodical in these conditions, you have to, to survive.

“We took our opportunities well, and so did they, we need to work on our right edge defence.

“Our effort probably deserved the result today.

“Our supporters were really good today and it was important that we showed our appreciation at the end there.

“When fans come this far and invest in the club it’s so important that we get the win for them.

“It was a real war of attrition and I’m so pleased that we won it today.”

Radford added: “I though Ryan [Hampshire] was really good at full-back and that competition at the back with Niall [Evalds] will be good for us too.

“This international break will be even better for us. We had a lot of blokes out, we had 19 fit players today so give them a fortnight to get ready will be very welcome for us.”