Interview with Troy Grant, Head of the IRL

[Last Week]

It depends, do we want 6th big (highly competitive) nation as a game or not? If we do, France is the easiest country to get there and we unlock a wealthy economy for the benefit of RL.

If we don't, then leave it as is and we'll never have a second RL powerhouse in Europe.

Yeah sounds great, but they've been given every advantage for decades. It's on them now.

 

[Last Week]

I've always believed you could solve the France 'problem' within a 4 year world cup cycle by doing the following.

1. Toulouse and Catalan ring fenced into Super League with the aim of 30 - 40 Super League standard players playing top division footy every week. Supported by a National team high performance program with regular training programs.

2. Hosting regular high profile test matches against whatever team is having a test series against England in England. Games to be played in Perpignan, Toulouse and Avignon to build a profile and base.

3. Committing to a Southern Hemisphere tour against a PNG or Fiji.

Specifically point 3, at the moment if France were to play England, NZ, Australia, Samoa or Tonga, all they would get out of those tests is practicing kick offs.

 

[England87]

One test against a Tier 1 team plus 2 tests against a similar standard of footy opposition every year sounds right.