10 October 2021

Toulouse Olympique booked their place in Betfred Super League with a 34-12 victory over Featherstone Rovers in the Million Pound Game.  Sylvain Houles' men will join fellow French side Catalans Dragons in the top tier after securing victory at Stade Ernest Wallon.  Despite racing into a 16-0 lead in the first 20 minutes they were made to work incredibly hard for victory by a spirited Featherstone side.

It was Toulouse's ex-Catalans trio of Remi Casty, who confirmed his retirement at the end of the game, Tony Gigot and Eloi Pelissier that helped lay the foundation for a thoroughly impressive first-half display which enabled them to build that 16-0 lead. Centre Mathieu Jussaume got the scoreboard ticking over after five minutes, taking an offload from former St Helens second rower Dominique Peyroux his impressive footwork took him past two defenders for the first of his two tries, which was converted by full-back Mark Kheirallah. As the home side maintained the pressure, Kheirallah kicked a couple of penalty goals and winger Latrell Schaumkel touched down a kick from Tony Gigot to register a second try after 18 minutes. With the introduction of Jack Bussey and John Davies from the bench, Featherstone gradually stemmed the onslaught and began to match the home side but were never able to put the Toulouse defence under sustained pressure.

it wasn't until the 52nd minute that Rovers got on the scoreboard when Dane Chisholm put Brett Ferres through a gap in the Olympique defence for a try which was converted by Craig Hall. A 40-20 kick from Chisholm enabled Rovers to keep the momentum and Hall and Ferres both went close to adding further tries. Jussaume eased the growing anxiety in the home camp when he took Pelissier's pass to cross for his second try in the 64th minute but second rower John Davies' converted try for Rovers three minutes just about kept his side in contention. Kheirallah eventually put Featherstone out of reach with another penalty before Hansen crashed through for Toulouse's fourth try seven minutes from the end. Kheirallah kicked his seventh goal from eight attempts before stand-off Johnathan Ford added a last-minute try to stretch his side's winning run to 20 matches and leave Featherstone contemplating a second successive Grand Final defeat.