Rugby League

Ah! The French Revolution. July 14, 1789- Bastille stormed, prisoners out, monarchy overthrown, king has his ‘ed chopped orrff- job done! In reality, it all took a lot longer. King remained on the thrown for a while, lots of infighting between revolutionaries, and eventually Napoleon and all that.

Just as some might mistakenly think the original French Revolution was a quick process, so many believed that the recent Rugby League revolution in France would be too. Catalans enter Superleague, three seasons development with a top three finish at the end of it and France send a cracking team to the World Cup- job done!

As we all saw though, this wasn’t the case and some said France were the great disappointments of the World Cup. The records will show that France finished last. They will also show that, like the other six teams outside of the super-group, they finished on two points in the group stages. Given their position three years ago, this is not a bad result.

A quick glance at the squad composition reveals some telling stats. In a 24 man squad, France had 13 players permanently attached to top-grade sides (all but one with the Catalans Dragons). Add to this another 5 who have some, albeit limited, experience of top-grade Rugby. Scotland and Ireland drew on 11 top-grade players, Samoa 18 and Tonga 19, whilst PNG in the Supergroup, and Fiji, the semi-finalists, only had 9. Had the tournament have been played before Catalans Dragons entered Superleague, France would have had no top-grade players. So to come this far is an achievement in itself.

A key player in France's revolution has been the RFL; recently however, the RFL has done much to hinder France’s development. Despite bringing Catalans into Superleague, in 2008 they dealt a double blow to French players. No licence for Toulouse, and worse, not including the French federation in the ‘federation trained’ rule for English Superleague clubs. Result- a French player who might be a classy prospect but doesn’t suit the style of play at Catalans or isn’t rated by their coach has limited top grade opportunities. He can either to go into Championship with Toulouse, play in the Elite league in France- (as was the case for French international Teddy Sadaoui- pictured left- who now plays for Carcassonne after his release by Catalans) or hope that he might be preferred over an Australian or Kiwi as an overseas or 'non federation trained' player in an English Superleague team – not much liberty, equality and fraternity there Citizen Lewis!