Sylvain Houles (born 3 August 1981) is the head coach of

Toulouse Olympique Toulouse Olympique or TO XIII is a professional rugby league club in Toulouse, south-west France. Founded in 1937, two years after the French Rugby League Federation, the club is a six-time winner of the French Rugby League Championship. The clu ...

in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

and a French former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer.

Playing career

As a player, Houles was a French international who toured New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in 2001 and appeared in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

for the

Huddersfield Giants The Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Huddersfield play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league sy ...

, the

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club based in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, England. They play their home games at Plough Lane and currently compete in the RFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of British rugby le ...

and the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats. He also played in the

for the

Dewsbury Rams The Dewsbury Rams are a professional rugby league club based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England that compete in RFL League 1, League One, the third tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. History 1875–1887: Dewsbury Athl ...

and

. His position of choice was initially on the or in the , but in his later career he played as a .

Coaching career

Houles combined playing with an assistant coach role in his later career, was appointed head coach of

once his playing career ended in 2012. On 10 October 2021, Houles coached Toulouse to victory over

Featherstone Featherstone is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, two miles south-west of Pontefract. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 2011 ...

in the

Million Pound Game Million Pound Game (stylized as £1M Game) was an annual rugby league game that decides which Championship teams will be promoted to Super League, and which Super League teams would be relegated for the following season. Instituted in 2015 and ...

which saw the club promoted to the

for the first time in their history. Toulouse Olympique would go on to be relegated the following season from the Super League after finishing bottom of the table. Houles would later comment saying that the relegation had done "untold damage" to the club.

References

External links

Toulouse Olympique profileGREAT BRITAIN LIONS 42 FRANCE 14England battle to French wins
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houles, Sylvain 1981 births Living people Dewsbury Rams players France national rugby league team players French rugby league coaches French rugby league players Huddersfield Giants players London Broncos players Rugby league centres Rugby league locks Rugby league wingers Toulouse Olympique coaches Toulouse Olympique players Wakefield Trinity players XIII Catalan players 21st-century French sportsmen