York Knights will come up against Toulouse Olympique this week in a repeat of the 2025 Championship Grand Final.

The Knights came up short that day, as the French side secured a 10-8 victory at the LNER Community Stadium, the same venue for Thursday’s Super League clash.

What makes that result more interesting was the fact that Toulouse didn’t score a try, and relied only on penalty goals to get them through.

York crossed twice that day, but both tries went unconverted, meaning the Olympians took home the trophy.

This week’s contest gives the Knights a chance to exert revenge on their fellow promoted side, however boss Mark Applegarth has revealed his side haven’t really spoken about that loss in the build-up to the game on Thursday.

Asked how he thinks Toulouse haved fared this season, Applegarth said: “Pretty similar to us, if I’m honest with you.

“We’ve got a hell of a lot of respect for Toulouse and Sylvain. I love that they’ve stayed true to their identity as a team. Obviously, we’ve got some outstanding players in there, led by Olly Ashall-Bott, I think he’s been excellent this year at full-back, so we need to have eyes on him.

“They’re playing exactly how they played in the Championship. They play a really attractive brand of rugby league. You’ve got to make sure your defensive systems are on point.

“They’ve been in some games where it’s been close. Our opponents last week, Leigh, obviously ran them very close. I don’t think they’re too dissimilar to us.

“They’re learning a few lessons along the way, with the core group of the squad that they kept being that Championship-winning team in that Grand Final.

All being well, it’s going to be an excellent match-up for a neutral fan. Both teams will be marking this one out as a must-win, full respect to Toulouse, and may the best team win on Thursday night.

Asked what they can do differently compared to last year’s heart-breaking defeat, the boss added: “Listen, it’s a new competition, different circumstances. We congratulate Toulouse for the Grand Final win last year.

“The game’s won on moments, isn’t it? And Toulouse, iced their moments last year. [It’s a] brand-new game, brand-new opportunity for both teams, and we’re just focussing on fixing up what we need to against Leigh and keep on doing what we felt we did well against Leigh as well.

“…We just want to get better game upon game. We felt up until a couple of weeks ago we’d been getting better game upon game. We then had a slight blip [defeats to Huddersfield and Hull KR], and then we felt a bit more like ourselves last week.”

York Knights boss offers “radical” idea over Championship restructure

One key piece of York’s success this season has been their relationship with Newcastle Thunder in the Championship.

With the side not having their own estalished academy, the club have formed an agreement with the North East outfit that sees them not only be able send players to and from each other, but both clubs train together on a weekly basis and you will often see Thunder head coach Graham Steadman as part of York’s coaching set-up on the sidelines.

Applegarth believes more teams should adopt the concept, with their current agreement labelled as a  “vital” part of York’s set-up.

The York boss also believes that some Super League reserve grade clubs could well compete with most second tier teams, and would be more than happy to see the top reserve sides feature weekly against Championship opposition.

“I think the partnership with Newcastle’s an outstanding way of [bringing youngsters through to senior level],” Applegarth said.

“It’s been vital for us. And it’s also great to get players that are on your peripheral but aren’t quite ready for week in, week out Super League or first grade rugby, experience at that next level.

“I think Clint [Goodchild, CEO] has been very forward thinking there and getting it sorted. Hopefully we’ll see a few more clubs follow suit.”

Explaining his idea of Super League reserve grade teams in the second tier, he said: “I’m pretty radical, shall I say, with my thinking. When I was the head of youth in my old job. You know, there were four or five reserves teams where you knew they’d compete at a championship level.

“I’d have nothing against, getting a real competitive championship where you may have some Super League clubs that have got reserve teams playing in that. I think it’s just a win-win for everyone there.”