Very valid even though Jason Baitieri is a Frenchman and Greeny is naturalised as such. Some stalwart Dragons fans, i.e. me, are not happy about this

you have a point. but they seem to be having some good young players coming through if they are given a chance, Pelissier, Pala, Barthau etc. it's time they started being given a chance

As long as they are winning I don't think it matters. A successful side will bring the crowds and there are a lot of French players in their squad, so it's not like they don't have a chance to break through into the first team.

Interesting angle to look at this line up.

Greenshields and Baitieri are both France Internationals for a kick off. As were all four players on the bench, Ferriol, Mounis, Raguin, Fakir.

The team is also missing Stacul, Baille, Pelissier, Gossard and Simon through injury, but lets overlook that and conclude that you point is the following...

Catalans have a few French players injured while all of their overseas players are fit.

Catalans have 8 not French players in their squad.

Bradford: have 10 non English players, 7 of which arnt British
Castleford: have non English, 3 not British
Huddersfield: 10 Non English, 6 not British
Hull: 9 Non English, 8 Not British
Hull KR: 12 Non English, 10 Not British
Leeds: 5 Non English, 5 Not British
London: 16 Non English, 15 Non British
Salford: 8 Non English, 7 Non British
Saints: 7 Non English, 7 Non British
Wakey: 9 Non English, 8 Non British
Wire: 10 Non English, 6 Non British
Widnes: 13 Non English, 12 Non British
Wigan: 12 Non English, 8 Non British

Not the biggest offenders in the home grown department, considering they are the youngest club in the league. Also, Saints had 5 overseas players on the pitch too.

Franchising working well then

It's 11, not 8.

It's not a 13 man game anymore anyway, it's a 17 man game and on that, well over half the side are French.

When the club first joined Super League, the self-imposed limit of eight overseas players was designed in part to ensure that every game-day 17 was more than half French. Now that self-imposed limit has been self-abandoned and we can name a run-on 13 with just two Frenchmen in it should we so choose to do so. I don't like it and is one reason why I've hung up my guns and sacked it off this season. After all, what's the point any more?

Blanch
Pryce
Sa
Dureau
Henderson
Menzies
Anderson
Millard
Paea

It's 9, I forgot Pryce.

Greenshields and Fisher.
Yes Greenshields has since become a French citizen, but the quota these days is about where players were trained. We can't just stick a flag in him and forget he's from Wollongong.

Here's their top 25 squad.




15 out of 25 are French or French residents, they've had a couple retire, a couple move to Union and a couple go to other SL clubs.

They are getting there.

You mean 4 non English

Brent Webb
Kylie Leuluai
Brett Delaney
Weller Hauraki

As I understand it Vaccari, Pellisier, Stacul, JP Baille and Gossard are all injured. They are regular first team players.

Exactly 10 of the starting 13 last night learned their rugby in countries other than France and that is poor.

So why are they not being replaced by French developed players? Or were Sa, Menzies et al signed as 'cover'?

Name the 6 non british players at the Giants.

I will give you 4...you name the others

Faiumu, Chan, O'Donnell and Fa'alogo.

Otherwise it looks like you are making up your numbers......

They were all injured this season in pre-season games. FFS what do you want them to do? They are all first team regulars and were keeping some of the imports out last year. Every club in the countrty would have Pellisier in their squad for example.

Their imports are top quality and are helping them compete at the top of the table. They have been in 2 Challenge Cup SFs, one Wembley final and two Grand Final Eliminators.

I would be asking more questions about the likes of Hull KR who came into SL only 1 year after Catalans, have filled their team with imports, mid-table mediocrity and play in one of the biggest hot-beds of RL talent in the country.

The question needs to be asked about most of SL

So which of Greenshields / Blanch / Millard / Pryce / Dureau / Paea / Henderson / Menzies / Sa / Baltieri would not be in best 17.

I think Vaccari, Pellisier, Stacul, JP Baille and Gossard would be more likely to replace French players not the 10 named above.

According to the commentary I heard French international half back, Bosc, a genuine quality player had been shoved out on the wing to make way for Pryce

I think the OP has made a pretty good case for a second French team in Super League.

Do you mean a team based in France or a team with 80%+ French born players?

I'd say he'd made a case for the opposite

On second thoughts you're right. Maybe Leigh should replace Catalans next year.

Same imaginary scenario for Warrington

Squad is
1. Brett Hodgson Overseas
2. Chris Riley
3. Chris Bridge
4. Ryan Atkins
5. Joel Monaghan Overseas
6. Lee Briers
7. Richie Myler
8. Adrian Morley
9. Michael Monaghan Overseas
10. Gareth Carvell
11. Trent Waterhouse Overseas
12. Ben Westwood
13. Ben Harrison
14. Micky Higham
15. Simon Grix
16. Paul Wood
17. Mike Cooper
18. Matty Blythe
19. Stefan Ratchford
20. Chris Hill
21. Tyrone McCarthy
22. Rhys Williams Wales
23. Rhys Evans Wales
24. Gareth O'Brien
26. David Solomona Overseas

Which I make to be 5 overseas players and 2 welsh juniors.

Which is not the same as the "Wire: 10 Non English, 6 Non British"

Don't lie just to improve your argument

TBH, this whole "Team X has more overseas players that Team Y" is a boring issue.

The fact is, for SL clubs to be competitive, they NEED imports. This is because there is simply NOT the depth of quality players available to SL clubs that the NRL has.

It's an undeniable fact that RL in the UK is a minority sport. Even more so for Catalan. They have to compete with French RU which throws money around like it's water and we have to compete with football.

It comes down to an aspirational question for kids getting into sport when you look at the wages for a pro-RL player compared to a pro-footballer. A top premiership football player will likely make in a week what a top RL star makes in a year.

Cutting quota's is an oft repeated mantra on these boards, however all that will do is put a greater divide into the league as it will put top English players at a premium in terms of wages commanded and mean that clubs have to rely on lower ability players (who as they're British will still be able to command better wages than more talented "journeymen" players from abroad). So clubs will have less squad depth available as more money from the salary caps will be used in order to fill restrictive quota rules. Which means that clubs who don't have the magic salary cap that some clubs do will struggle as they're having to employ lower quality players and will have their best youngsters poached by the bigger pocketed clubs.

It's the RFL who should be the ones under the microscope here. They need to be making the job of professional RL player an attractive choice in order to increase homegrown talent and thus reduce SL's reliance of overseas players.