An England team with 8 debutants declared at half time. Pathetic effort by Jean's lot. Having Catalans Antipodeans in Sooper League, is vital to for the French National side I agree , or else they would have lost by 90 !

I don't see the point in England playing them every year, they are so far below the level of the elite that it serves zero purpose in terms of preparation.

I would rather see England play the knights as a warm up.

Are you not pleased England won ? why have you mentioned a championship side about improving England ? Are you english ?

Of course he is pleased however he wouldn't be doing his job if he said he was pleased the job of a Troll is to Troll.
I do however realise that this in itself is a subject not to be broached as this species is more protected than the Northern White Rhino and there are more of the former .

Not sure if a Knights fixture would’ve been that good either given the injuries and calls up tonight to the main squad. Even as a Leeds fan I’m flabbergasted that Liam Sutcliffe got a game tonight, shouldn’t be near International level.

I don't know how he/it keeps it up, I really couldn't be bothered.

Jesus! Someone is bored (and boring).

What more difference than Widdop the worlds greatest half back - your ability to get it all wrong is squire staggering.

Ironic that the worse France play, the stronger the case for increasing the number of French teams in SL. It's apparent that one doesn't enhance their national fortunes.

It might do if more were French and more could be bothered to play for the national team.

Actually it doesn't prove that. It proves that RL is an equally regional game in France as it is in England, in fact more so because they can't get the same levels of interest or financial investment. Jean and others don't like to hear this but the ONLY way for France as a nation to improve is to stop looking at novelty clubs being placed in SL and somehow promote the game properly within France itself and get more financial support. Catalans being in SL hasn't promoted wider investment in their national league so far and I doubt them winning the Challenge Cup will change that.

More of a question is....should the English RFL provide financial support to the French domestic league to promote growth?

The RFL have all on providing support for English leagues, never mind French. They wouldn’t know where to start.

England were without Clark, Hill, Ratchford, Bateman, Greenwood, O'Laughlin, Tomkins, Williams, Sam Burgess, Gale, Lomax, Makinson and Roby, Widdop, Hall, Watkins who didn't even make the squad in-time... and even Hardaker!

It's a bit of an assumption that all these players are certain first choices but I get the point.

Why is anyone surprised? Every member of the England team plays in either of the top 2 leagues in the world.

Half of the French team play in a semi pro league.

Get rid of half the England team and replace them with Championship players and see how well we do against Australia.

The argument that Catalans hasn’t improved the French team is just daft and far too simplistic, but then that kind of argument is the norm in RL.

This is the truth.

You said it, France don't produce many quality RL players.

No they don’t, but do you think there would be any French players playing in a full time league without Catalans Dragons in SL?

Maybe 1 or 2?

Currently there are say 12-15 playing regularly.

If we put those players bar 1 or 2 into a semi pro league would that increase or decrease the quality of the French National Team?

It’s just daft to say because they lose heavily that that is evidence that Catalans in SL hasn’t made any difference.
Of course it has.

Personally I think there should be big salary cap dispensations for French players in SL or incentives of some sort for English clubs to sign French players.

The Kiwi team became properly competitive when they got plenty of Kiwis playing at Aussie clubs not just using the NZW team as the national team, however there are bigger barriers to overcome for a French lad to move to the north of England than there is a Kiwi to an NRL club. We need to work to remove or decrease those barriers and incentivise English clubs to sign French players.

Exactly this

Just imagine if there were no FT players in the French squad, England would be getting close to a century of points.
The harsh reality is that we have a squad of FT pro players and right now, the best pack in world RL and unless France are able to catch up (which at present looks impossible), they will remain a "second tier" International side.

Their fully fit first choice 13/17 are ok but, there is absolutely no depth and how could there be ??

I think Printer's idea is good - give salary cap incentives for other SL sides (including Catalans) to sign French players, like the marquee exemption. One other thing is up to the French - they seem to have a lot of players who aren't that bothered about playing for France, and the effort often just isn't there. Compare and contrast to the new pacific sides, Tonga but also Samoa and Fiji, where the attitude is fantastic amongst the players.

maybe they should of played Leigh instead of England to balance the skill level on the field

Slightly unfair comparison with Fiji and Tonga, who fill their national team with "Aussies" and "Kiwis".
They both played with immense pride in the World Cup but, France dont have the same advantage when it comes down to having qualifying grandparents etc.

The only way fro France to become more competitive is to have more full time professional French players, which means having more playing in SL (either for Catalan or other SL clubs) but, how can this happen with just one French club in the elite competition ?

A bit unfair that Snowie, Leigh haven't even got a team, but I know what you mean.

Fair enough if you argue that half the team are semi-pro, but you have to then ask the question why they are playing a test match against England every year? It can't do those players any favours to go out and get pumped by half an England team.

From an England perspective, there's not a lot to be gained from that preparation, we are going into a test series pretty cold, whilst the Kiwi's are coming over off the back of winning a high-intensity, high-quality game against Australia.

Some England players haven’t played in a month, they needed a game prior to the Kiwis.

France without their injury crisis and players missing due to playing in the Grand Final would have been much stronger.