Despite having a team in SL for a long time it seems the national team is no closer to being competitive. How can France improve?

they need to hire a good coach and that will help them out a lot, in the next 4 years a lot of talented young french players will be coming through.

More full-time clubs. I don't understand why people expect them to be competitive with the top nations on the back of one full-time club. It would be like Wigan playing NZ without Blake Green, Pat Richards, Anthony Gelling, Harrison Hansen, Gil Dudson, Matt Bowen and Ben Flower. They need a full-time pool of at least 30-40 players to even have a chance of being competitive. At the moment they have about 20, and half of those are reserves.

While more FT teams would you would hope improve things, it hasnt neccessarily worked for England, so essentially the same things are needed that are needed for everybody else

Better coaching at junior level, more junior clubs, just MORE of everything basically

For me it's a case if crack on doing what they are doing with Catalan and start cranking things up with Toulouse. Catalan have come on leaps and bounds and are starting to get some really decent French players coming through but these things take time. More time than they have had IMO

Given the crowd in Avignon do they have a potential ft club?

Agree with that, especially better coaching at Junior level. Some of it is god-awful.

Where to For France? good question, lets ask jean capdouze

Same as Ireland.

I agree with almost everything that has been said above. I would expand on these points a little and add two more:

1. [uBetter coaching at all levels[/u. The RLIF should provide training courses in France, using the best Australian coaches (e.g. Bennett, Bellamy, Sheens, Robinson, McGuire) during the Australian off season (which at the moment is in the early part of the French elite season). At the national level the French could have done much better. Trent Robinson would be ideal, but his current position in the NRL would preclude that. John Kear, who speaks French, would be the best choice of English coaches for the French national team.

2. [uThe expansion of the number of French clubs in Super League[/u. This will create pathways to professionalism in rugby league for more French youth, who will otherwise choose rugby union. Admitting Toulouse to Super League should be considered the first, immediate step, but not the last. Great possibilities also exist in Avignon, as the crowd last night showed. And after Avignon the SL should be considering Paris as the next (4th) base for Super League. If all those clubs were successful (and we are talking about a 10 year time frame to get to 4 clubs) then you can be sure that rugby league will take off in France. At that point the SL would be mad not to consider teams from two more French cities out of Lyon, Mille, Montpellier and Bordeaux. Then you could have a 6 team French conference within Super League, with the likelihood of a lucrative TV contract if the conference has a good geographic (and hence commercial market) spread of major cities.

3. [uChange the French Elite competition to a summer competition[/u, in alignment with Britain's competitions.

4. [uFind more commercial opportuniies for the French Elite clubs[/u, perhaps by instituting a televised mid season or end of season contest with the British Championship clubs. On the back of expanding the number of professional French clubs the number of semi-professional French Elite competition clubs will expand, and will prosper as these clubs become reserve teams and feeders of talent for the professional clubs. At the point when Paris has has a Super League club, there will need to be created a separate semi-professional regional Elite competition in the north-centre of France, which would include the entire Paris metropolitan area, and perhaps beyond.

These proposals require strategic planning. Carlos Zalduendo, the Toulouse-based head of the French Federation, is capable of this. But he needs the support of the British for any of this to be realised.

More inclusion of Toulouse in S.L warbling by Aussie Jean



How about the French players don't care about representing their country?.

We've had blame the coach, blame Super League etc....what about those on the pitch?

They need a bigger pool of players to pick from. Putting another full time French team SL would help but we need more full time French players playing in SL in general. Look at NZ, they have one FT team but they're the world champions, and just how many of NZ squad actually come from the NZ club?

Another French team would be filled with Australians...they would want instant success.

They would be better served sending some of their better junior players over here or to Australia / N.Z.

It still doesn't explain how the Catalans players do in the national shirts though does it?, and the sympathy for the French National team on here is another reason why we haven't won anything at International level either. We are forever weakening our own hand to aid others...Poor French team?...fast track another French team into S.L



As for New Zealand?....they'd been getting results at international level and supplying players to Aussie/ British clubs long before the Auckland Warriors entered the N.R.L, all from a country which battles to get out of the shadow of the All Blacks.

Maybe the French should start to help themselves more first.

Getting a proper coach (preferably French) would be a start, Bobby Goulding and Agar were both joke appointments.

I don't think its all doom and gloom though, players like Fages & Escare have their best years ahead of them.

Another French SL team, more teams in the British lower levels and having English clubs bringing through French juniors in their academy systems.

All pretty basic stuff, just takes time.

There should be a yearly under 18s international tournament held in Australia or England and all the NRL and ESL clubs should pick the eyes out of the best juniors in the world for their under 20s squads.
Most of these guys will go back to their countries after 2 years as very much better players, while some will go on to professional careers.

Players were literally crying during the national anthem. I'd hardly say they don't care! Maybe they care too much?!

Possibly for the first couple of years. I'd hardly say "filled" as well. There'd still be plenty of French players in there to start with.





People seem to not understand how many Kiwis live in Australia (and specifically the East Coast) compared to French people up north. I think I've met more Aussies in Hull than I have Frenchmen! It's a huge cultural difference. To expect the French to just uproot to other shores is not a practical alternative at all. It will not happen. It's a possible root for the Welsh, but not the French. They need to build domestically.


Because France only has one FT team, they are weak in certain areas of the field. Where the Catalans plug these gaps with Aussies, Les Bleus have to bring in part time players. That makes a HUGE difference. More clubs means more chance of finding players that will plug these gaps (and more chance a club will take a chance with French players in these positions).

Basically, just imagine Warrington were the only FT English team and the rest were part time. How good would they be if you had to replace the full back, winger, half back, hooker and second row with part time, youngsters or utility players? I reckon the Kiwis would demolish them also.

The thing is, a good France test side, would help improve us also.

The Kiwis have 2 or 3 players at every Aussie club, but English clubs don't have Frenchmen as it counts on the quota. Perhaps that is something we could look in to.

As has been pointed out earlier, the cultural difference between Auckland ( or even Tonga/Fiji ) and Sydney is minute compared to Carcassonne and Wakefield

Another French SL club is our best option to help develop French RL, but that on its own is not the answer

That's because they come through the Aus systems.

You won't get many French players moving to England as youngsters. It's a completely different cultural. It's a huge barrier, along with language. This will not work with the French like it does NZ. It might work with the Welsh though.

Bring Toulouse in ahead of some glum northern flat cap pit town. The games needs real expansion.

You mean kick London out right?

How about when the country votes no to europe we kick out the European teams.

Was the result more about the strength of the NZ team rather than the weakness of the French?