Toulouse, who spent four years in the Championship before returning to the French league in 2011, will be back in the English competition in 2016 after being admitted to the Kingstone Press League 1.

They will enter the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup in the third round later this month, along with the other 14 third-tier clubs, before their getting league campaign under way with a home game against Coventry on March 5.

Rugby League England players pay respects to mark centenary of end of First World War 21/10/2018 AT 13:46

"The long-term aim is Super League and in the short term we have to get to the Championship as quickly as we can," said Toulouse coach Sylvain Houles, who played in Super League with Huddersfield, London Broncos and Wakefield.

"We need to win it this year. We don't want to put ourselves under pressure but we would have to bring in new players to compete in the Championship.

"We have to be realistic, there are full-time teams and a lot of quality teams in the Championship. It is a tough competition, we've been there."

Houles was speaking at Monday's season launch in Manchester via Skype from Marrakesh, where the club are continuing their preparations with a series of team-bonding sessions which included camel rides and quad bikes.

All 39 clubs from the Championship and League 1 were represented at the launch, where Rugby Football League chief operation officer Ralph Rimmer predicted another exciting season following Bradford's narrow failure to gain promotion to Super League.

The Bulls conceded a late try to go down 24-16 at Wakefield in the £1million game and coach James Lowes admits it took him several weeks to get over the disappointment.

"It probably took until I got back in after the England series and sat down with the boys," Lowes said. "That's when we got it out of the system."

Leigh, who lost just once in the regular season before collapsing in the Super 8s Qualifers, are once more clear favourites to top the table after recruiting a host of big names including Rangi Chase and Harrison Hansen from Salford.

The Centurions suffered a blow last week with the resignation of coach Paul Rowley but he has been succeeded by Neil Jukes and Lowes says they will still be the team to beat.

"They will have had a couple of weeks to get over that," Lowes said. "I'm sure the players with their experience will guide the team.

"It will be a tough competition, with Leigh the side that everybody wants to beat."

The Bulls have added experience in the shape of Ben Kavanagh, Richard Mathers and Jonathan Walker but Lowes says he is still hoping to make two further signings.

"I believe we're stronger in certain positions than last year," he said. "I think we're probably still a couple of positions light but we're still working hard to pick up the right people."

Meanwhile, Lowes says he is keen to remain on the England coaching staff as the RFL prepare to finalise their review, with the likelihood that Australian Wayne Bennett will replace Steve McNamara as head coach.

"It was good to get back last year, I missed it," said Lowes, who was recalled as McNamara's assistant for the series win over New Zealand.

"At the moment, there's nothing been confirmed so there's nothing really to comment on.

"When any sort of news breaks, we'll see what happens on the back of that."

Rugby League Wigan stand by Zak Hardaker but tell full-back he has making up to do 19/10/2018 AT 11:10