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None of them go to Union. Barely any. I can't remember the last time it happened, maybe Estebanez in about 2005/06.
The biggest problem is that they don't get the game time and exposure they need to develop properly. For an example, and not sure if this is what provoked your post, France and England u18s actually played tonight, the score was 19-18 to England. Of the two teams, 8 of the England team have already played Super League while only one of the France team has (Lucas Albert who is also in the senior France squad). One of the other French players is at Toulouse and getting a decent run, but for the others it could be years before they are even close to the first team at Catalans, they have a huge log jam of players to get past and can't even get regular game time for the reserves until they are 21-22 years old in some cases. Hopefully things will change somewhat with the Catalans u19s playing in the SL u19s comp for the past two years, which at least gives them some high-level exposure on a regular basis. But there just haven't been the proper pathways and opportunities for these kids in the past.
Because English clubs have their own juniors. And nobody is giving salary cap discounts lol come on
Because it's a hell of a challenge for both the player and club to house a 19 year old kid in a very different country with a different language, integrate them to a different culture and different style of footy and then develop them with all the regular challenges that usually come with player development anyway, especially when there is already a pathway in place for them in France. It's a huge commitment and challenge on both the part of the club and player. It still happens very occasionally (although a lot less since Catalans u19s launched) but the only one that has really been successful and progressed to Super League level without coming through the French league first is Theo Fages.
Not sure about that, Toulouse have their own youngsters who they bring through at their own pace but there's still a huge logjam of players in the Catalans system, and the result is you end up with guys like Alexandre Mickalezyk who was a great prospect in the French junior teams and even spent a year with the Roosters SG Ball, went back to Catalans and played in the U19s but then could barely get a game for their reserves due to the huge backlog of players waiting for a chance in his position and now has left the club to join Carcassone in the Elite league where he will probably spend the rest of his career.
