France RLWC train on squad

[morningstar]

28 pros, 21 from Elite and Theo's been forgiven. Any names missing?...

http://www.ffr13.fr/actualite-inter...-convoques-au-barcares-les-15-et-16-decembre/

 

[East Coast Tiger]

The young bloke at the Storm?

 

[Storm13]

The young bloke at the Storm?

It's just a squad to meet up for training sessions. I guess they don't expect Levy to fly from Australia for them.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Probably.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

28 pros is a good pool of players. Hopefully this swells to 40 or 50 by WC 2021

 

[Evil Homer]

28 pros is a good pool of players. Hopefully this swells to 40 or 50 by WC 2021

A lot of good young players coming through who should make it at a pretty good level, there are about 10 guys aged 18-20 in the Catalans reserves at the moment who I would be hopeful of cracking Super League at some point. A lot depends on Toulouse getting to SL, at the moment we have guys who could play at a higher level spending 5-6 years in the reserves at Catalans waiting for an opportunity because they don't have anywhere else to go.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

France's depth is definitely improving, largely due to Catalans producing players and them making it to SL either there or in England.

What they could really do with is two or three stars. They just don't have anyone who you would call a standout player, say someone good enough to play for Australia, or even England. A Hayne or a Brough type player on top of that generally solid professional squad would make a big difference. Hopefully they keep producing players good enough to play SL and even NRL, but some can go on to be top first graders.

 

[Burns]

Has France ever had a super star player like that?

 

[Emu01]

Yes they did have a star in the 50's, Called Puig Aubert. My father told me how he played amazing rugby league for France against Australia.

The French team beat Australia in Australia 2-1 in 1951 he scored 225 points on that tour and the French team won 25 of 28 games that year..

Apparently he scored some unbelievable tries in that test series against the Aussies and the Kiwis.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

They had several very good players from the 1930s to the 60s. Puig Aubert is the most well known but before him you had Max Roussie who was supposedly brilliant. There were plenty of others in those days too like Ponsinet, Brousse and more. Many of them would have been good enough to play for Australia or GB.

 

[Coastbloke]

Let's just think about that..
France used to come to Australia and beat us at rugby league in front of 60,000...
The people who run the game now sure have some vision..

 

[Emu01]

They did have an unbelievable team back then and built a great deal of momentum going into that particular game at the SCG.

If France could get anywhere near that form I rekon we could still pull a decent crowd

Unfortunately France has gone backwards.Lets hope the new administration can improve the team.

 

[LeagueXIII]

They also beat Australia in France in 1952/53 and in Australia again in 1955 also making the World Cup Final in 1954 in Paris.
Also winning the European Championship 3 times in 4 years between 1949-52 against very powerful England, Welsh and Other Nationalities teams.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Great players like Merquey, Contrastin, Dop, Cantoni, Jiminez etc

 

[Leigh Howlett]

Blame the Vichy collaborators back in WWII for the decline of French Rugby League and the shamateur French Rugby who allowed players to be paid so much that they poached the leading League players.
Unfortunately the French League was never able to build on the success of those post war players.

 

[adamkungl]

The medium term aim for the French should be to match the kind of playing numbers NZ have at high level.

NZ is a much smaller country but with a far stronger Rugby culture.
NZ has somewhere 120-150 odd eligible players in the NRL and probably another 50 or so in SL.
Obviously a fraction of these are test quality but they're the kind of professional numbers you need to be pushing out to have a decent crack at Australia.

Strong well funded youth programs, professional clubs with the cash to poach and hold off Union talent, regular international matches building crowds and brand.

 

[morningstar]

Just noticed John Boudebza is missing from the list. Seems to have fallen off the map after being released by Hull KR....is he back in Elite?

 

[ed313909]

My dad tells me he witnessed Puig Aubert kick one from the sideline, 50m out. While smoking.
Said he lit up multiple times mid game.
And said he was an amazing player.

 

[morningstar]

Squad has been cut to 32 and they are having a training camp at the end of July. Kuni Minga has been included but article says he has only been in France for 3 years so unsure how he still qualifies. Windy Buche is the best name ever...

http://www.ffr13.fr/equipes-de-france/32-bleus-en-stage-de-cohesion/

Bastien ADER – TO
Olivier ARNAUD – Avignon
Jason BAITIERI – Dragons
William BARTHAU – London Broncos
Guillaume BONNET – Lézignan
John BOUDEBZA – London Broncos
Julian BOUSQUET – Dragons
Clément BOYER – TO
Windy BUCHE – Lézignan
Bastien CANET – TO
Damien CARDACE – Lézignan
Rémi CASTY – Dragons
Vincent DUPORT – Dragons
Théo FAGES – St Helens
Stan ROBIN – TO
Ben GARCIA – Dragons
Tony GIGOT – Dragons
Maxime HEROLD – Limoux
Benjamin JULLIEN – Warrington
Kevin LARROYER – Castleford
Thibaud MARGALET – Dragons
Rémy MARGINET – Sheffield
Antoni MARIA – Leigh
Hakim MILOUDI – Carcassonne
Kuni MINGA – TO
Romain NAVARETTE – Wigan
Eloi PELISSIER – Leigh
Arthur ROMANO – St Estève-XIII Catalan
Mickaël ROUCH – Limoux
Mickaël SIMON – Dragons
Gadwin SPRINGER – Castleford
Fouad YAHA – Dragons

 

[Storm13]

Interesting to see Minga make the squad after just three years residency.