Toulouse desperate to prove the French force

There will be an extra frisson in the French participation in the third round of the TXU Energi Challenge Cup today, thanks to the decision that Union Treiziste Catalan are the preferred candidates for a place in Super League.

The Perpignan-based club have been invited to apply for inclusion in the competition and they have a chance to show their calibre when they meet – and presumably beat – Gateshead, who finished bottom of the Northern Ford Premiership last season. Admittedly the Thunder have strengthened since then, but are still unlikely to be a fair test of the credentials of UTC, who are currently top of the French Championship and have signed the former London Broncos prop Justin Dooley. Their real examination will come if they draw a Super League club in the fourth round.

The other three French clubs have demanding but winnable ties, with two seeking to demonstrate that they should have got the nod from Super League.

Toulouse, with all the advantages of a major city, fully expected their application to succeed. If they beat Salford, only relegated from Super League last season, the selection process will be left with a good deal of oeuf on its face.

There has been a big turn-over of players under their new player-coach, the Welsh international Justin Morgan, and Toulouse have still to find their best form this season, but they do have three young players recently included in the French squad – Sebastien Raguin, Julien Gerin and Frederick Zitter.

The team with the largest complement of familiar faces, however, are Villeneuve – the other candidates rejected last week. Alongside seasoned French internationals Laurent Frayssinous, Julien Rinaldi and Laurent Carrasco, they have Quentin Pongia – one of the best props New Zealand has produced – and two Australians with British connections in the former Huddersfield and Wakefield winger Andrew Frew, and the ex-Salford centre Jason Webber. They will be a handful for Featherstone, as will the Pia team for Hunslet.

The Donkeys – as they are known – are coached by one of rugby league's more colourful characters, the Lebanese John Elias, and have another playing for them. He is Craig Field, an archetypal bad boy of Australian league, but an international-class scrum-half when he is not embroiled in off-field problems.

Three French teams could go through to the fourth round in which, unlike the third, they could be drawn at home. They could be joined by some unfamiliar names. The game's newest professionals, the London Skolars, have an awkward away match against the Widnes amateurs Halton Simms Cross. The re-formed York City Knights play Skirlaugh, while the reward for Hull side Embassy for beating Strella Kazan is a trip to Barrow.