Why rugby league needs to put quality ahead of quantity and stop taking fans for granted – Peter Smith’s 2021 review

What was always set to be a tough year was made harder by some decisions off the field and it’s difficult to argue convincingly for the game being in a better state now than when the campaign kicked off seven months ago.

However, all the teams who left the start line in March seem to have made it to the finish in one piece which, in these testing times, is an achievement in itself.

For the second time in three years, Betfred Super League will welcome a foreign newcomer in 2022 when Toulouse Olympique become the competition’s second French-based team.

Toulouse have done it the hard way, moving through the divisions after beginning in League One.

They won all 14 of their league games this term, none of them at home, as well as two play-offs and look capable of breaking the cycle of promoted clubs going back down the following season.

Like Toronto Wolfpack in 2020, they won’t take as many fans to away games as some of their Championship rivals would in the top flight, but a crowd of 9,235 attended their Grand Final win over Featherstone Rovers and, of all the clubs outside Super League, only Bradford Bulls could realistically hope to match that.