York vs Toulouse Prediction: Knights to claim Championship crown

A thrilling Betfred Championship season gets the conclusion it deserves at the LNER Community Stadium on Sunday (14:00, live on The Sportsman YouTube channel), as the top two teams in the division go toe-to-toe in York for the big prize.

League leaders York Knights welcome a Toulouse side who fought back brilliantly last week to beat Bradford and book their fourth Betfred Championship Grand Final appearance in the last five years. Read on for our rugby league expert George Riley's York Knights vs Toulouse Olympique predictions.

York Knights vs Toulouse Olympique Odds

The Knights are 2/5 at Betfred to win the Grand Final, while Toulouse are available at 21/10. The draw is a 16/1 shot.

Team News

York booked their place at the big dance with a comfortable home win over Halifax Panthers as Bradford and Toulouse were toiling in the south of France.

Knights head coach Mark Applegarth makes just one change to his initial 21-man squad as York look to finish the season on a high ahead of their predicted elevation into the Betfred Super League. That part is not guaranteed of course, with the game's hierarchy having invited applications from clubs in an expansion plan from a 12 to 14-team top flight.

But on the field at least York have looked the business, and Applegarth brings in Danny Richardson to his squad for the first time since his arrival on loan from Hull KR in August. The Super League star has been recovering from an ankle injury.

The half-back takes the place of Joe Brown. York is a team full of stars, not least talisman Ben Jones-Bishop - a Grand Final winner with Leeds Rhinos and the Knight's top try scorer this year, and hooker Paul McShane - the 2020 Steve Prescott Man of Steel.

As for Toulouse, Sylvain Houles' men have proved very difficult to beat on home soil but slightly more difficult to predict on the road.

Their star men include try-scoring full-back Olly Ashall-Bott and a heap of French talent including skipper Anthony Marion, the versatile Mathieu Jussaume and half-back Thomas Lacans.

And Houles is able to name an unchanged 21 from the squad that beat Bradford 24-20, scoring four second-half tries through Reubenn Rennie, Paul Ulberg and an Ashall-Bott double.

Handicap 3-Way - York -8 @ 1/1

This could well have been York versus Bradford and in truth many - including myself - thought that is how the season would end up. Those two are banging the loudest on the Betfred Super League door, and after the Bulls flew into an early lead last week in the south of France it appeared the most likely outcome.

So credit Toulouse, but can they ride the wave of positivity from that fightback at the Stade Ernest Wallon all the way to the title?

The French side can take this as a free hit in my eyes - you could say Toulouse have nothing to lose. York finished top, are at home and are expected to win.

I have always felt like Toulouse can crumble under pressure and we have seen them have to scramble for a few results this year, whereas York recovered from a round one thumping at Oldham to become the strongest team over 2025.

The crowd will be big too, and that will be a factor. Will York feel the pressure of anticipation that they are finally about to hit the big time?

A reminder, the winner of this Grand Final does not gain automatic promotion to Betfred Super League. That is decided off the field but you would feel the Grand Final winners will add a huge amount of weight to those claims.

Toulouse have won their last four games on the spin. Their last defeat? 16-8 at home to York at the end of August. The other meeting between the two sides was way back in February. The French side won 7-6 in North Yorkshire, but York had barely got going in the season at that point.

The Knights are flying. 20 matches unbeaten stretching back to a loss at Featherstone in the middle of April, surely they will get the job done?

I expect so. This is a team on the rise and I am backing the Knights to cap a memorable season with a Grand Final win, and beat the handicap in doing so.

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