Quote ="gutterfax"Forgive me.......I could have sworn that French RL purchased the RLWC trophy and that French RL has a rich history in the game. I should have realised that they of course need maybe more than the 60+'year head start on London to get 3 players in the SL grand final.
As for the Toulouse for SL debate.......bollox. Stop cramming the dragons with imports before you ask for another team......'"
Is someone a little bitter that they're not in superleague anymore? That they're an expansion club that has failed massively? Unfortunately the Catalans play to the same rules as everyone else regarding imports, so the same number of imports that fill the catalans squad also fill the St. Helens, Wigan and Warrington squads . Perhaps that's why England failed just one stage further than France at the RLWC.
I'll give you the 60 year head start, we'll ignore that the first professional club in France was the Dragons, a whole 26 years after professional rugby league went to london. The roots you've set down in 34 years and you're only just getting players into grand finals? It's also 10 years after superleague went to full time professionalism. That is a huge gap that has seen France playing catch up ever since.
Catalans have done amazingly well since their inception (let's ignore the 2 years of Kevin Walters' reign where only 2 French players made their debut-top coach he was) the likes of Pelissier, Escare, Simon, Bousquet, Larroyer, Garcia, Baile, Vaccari, Pala, Margalet, Bentley's, Barthau, Maria, Baitieri have all made their debut since the Walters reign and gone on to play at international level.
The biggest fear now that 'every minute of every game matters' is that less players will come through and make their debuts, that is why the catalans have invested €750,000 into a new academy system so the new Escare and Pelissier can come through.
