Which they have to share between 13 FT pro clubs plus a number of semi pro. If the point of Catalans is not to grow the game in France and give French players the opportunity to play top,flight RL what is the point in them bring in and English comp?

Not just Europe - this guy has a worldwide lack of understanding on RL and its limitations and why they are such. JB lives in the land of JB. A strange place where facts do not exist.

well firstly they did a poor job, don't remember HKR getting within 80 mins of a G/F twice.

Secondly HKR have over one hundred years of a head start over Catalan and a good 50 over the whole of French RL.

So the fact we have grown the game enough to say there are maybe 5/6 thousand people who regularly watch top flight rugby league in France and that the dragons have given the opportunity to roughly 50 French rugby players to play the code of their choice professionally. I mean really, what's the point?

I guess it's completely beyond your realm of comprehension that English clubs also have the ability to sign French juniors if they wish.

People also forget that whilst Catalans maybe RL heartland in France it's also slap bang in the middle of a very strong and financially strong rugby union area. Anyone any good at rugby down there is just as liable to be attracted into Union.

Buy hey why not knock them as they have the temerity to do well in the play offs.

Who has knocked them?

I'd say the tone of some on this thread is simply knocking them. Their apparent failure to develop local talent or the entire French game. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. If I am I apologise.

More a ' wish list ' of expectation for the Catalans, I'm sure we'd all like to see more, I was genuinely surprised when I saw their team sheet

Wire have high hopes for Louis Jouffret, signed from Avignon.

Fertile imaginations notwithstanding, there wasn't 6,900 there. I doubt there was as many as 5,000 there either.

Do you really expect a Huddersfield home attendance against Catalan to buck the play-off attendance trend?

Really?

Let's take a look at the evidence.

Wigan V Huddersfield attendance in the play-off was 8,652. The corresponding regular season attendance in 2014 was 16,240. That's a 47% decrease.

St Helens V Castleford attendance in the play-off was 7,548. The corresponding regular season attendance in 2014 was 12,648. That's a 40% decrease.

Warrington V Widnes attendance in the play-off was 7,229. The corresponding regular season attendance in 2014 was 10,500. That's a 31% decrease.

Leeds V Catalan attendance in the play-off was 7,112. The corresponding regular season attendance in 2014 was 13,888. That's a 49% decrease.

Castleford V Warrington attendance in the play-off was 6,219. The corresponding regular season attendance in 2014 was 6,853. That's a 10% decrease.

Note the trend above.

Yet we are all supposed to believe that 6,900 were in attendance for the play-off between Huddersfield V Catalan which, compared to the corresponding regular season game which attracted an attendance of 4,931 would represent a 40% bucking-the-trend increase?

Huddersfield cannot even buy an attendance of 6K against Catalan during the regular season. And that's with season tickets. When they faced Catalan at home in the play-offs in 2009, the attendance was 4,263. Last season, they could only muster 5,547 in the play-offs at home to Hull.

6,900?

A Challenge cup final, Play-offs and now 80 minutes from the Grand Final. Not bad for a new Super League Club still in it's infancy. A real success story.

That trend is irrelevant William. Because even if you think there was only 5,000 there then that has still bucked your trend, just like Castleford v Warrington did.

As I said the stand everybody was in looked relatively full on TV.

Is it an advantage?

How many other sides are running with 8/9/10 of their own academy products in a 17? not very many and it is only Leeds, Wigan, Saints who are around that level. The team they played last week in Huddersfield had only 3 of their academy products on show.

Whilst it might seem like an advantage in that there isnt much competition for french pro's as there is UK ones, there is a disadvantage in there is no one out there for them to be signing french players from, and they must blood them all themselves which would put them at a competitive disadvantage.

There is nowhere that Les Catalans can go out and sign a Larne Patrick, Luke Robinson or Brett Ferres from, there is nobody out there developing a Joe Wardle or Craig Kopczak for them.

You also have to think that it isnt an exact science, just because you need a winger for example, it doesnt mean the next pro off your production line will be a winger, your production line may not necessarily produce a player in the position you need when you need them and you dont have control over that. You might produce 2 props and a loose forward when the gaps in your first team mean you need a prop a half and a winger, and whilst the british teams can (and should) fill those gaps by trading with each other for british players, Les Catalans dont have that option for French players

Until there are 3/4/5 french teams in SL, meaning we have 3/4/5 pools of french players coming through, meaning we have 90/120/150 french players each cohort being trained and coached up to a pro level instead of 20-30 then we can't really expect more than 10 or 15 french players to be getting an SL run out.

and yet we saw a club in Hull, one of the hotbeds of the Uk game, with 12 overseas players in their 25 man squad, one which had to register and deregister overseas players just to fit them all in and argued for dispensation.

How many Hull KR juniors are currently regular SL players?

Your comparing the jnr pool in hull shared by two teams to the entire French jnr pool???

im comparing the number of SL players HKR have brought through to the number of players Les Catalans have brought through.

If there isnt the player pool in Hull, there shouldnt be two teams in Hull

if we are using number of jnrs playing the game as some bizarre test for SL eligibility then we could end up with a very small comp! I'd suggest there is more players from Hull running around in SL then French players despite there being 25% of the number of jnrs playing the game in the area compared to the whole of France. A pretty damning reflection of just how poor the French jnr development systems and Catalans in particular are. But not to worry there's always NSW cup reserve graders to top up the ranks.

Do you mean reserve graders like Rhys Lovegrove? Ken Sio? Josh Mantellato? Or are we talking about those topping up their pension like Neville Costigan or Mick Weyman?

You can suggest there are more players from Hull than there are French players, but they certainly arent coming from Hull KR, if they were, perhaps they wouldnt be needing to import french juniors whom Catalans have failed to develop to top up the ranks. Like Kevin Larroyer.

never in a gagillion years was there 6,900 at hudds.

Did I suggest Catalans only had Catalans academy players? No, last time I looked there were a dozen or so other semi pro clubs in France , all capable of nurturing the next French Chris Hill or Zac Hardacker along with many other players

Either way I posted a question, some have eventually discussed it in a reasonable manner

Julien Bosquet and Morgan Escare are young players who have come through the Catalan/French system and have become full internationals, just like Hill and Hardaker.

I know when you look on your map France is quite big, you do know they don't all play rugby don't you?

there arent that many players who have come through a semi-pro academy/development set up and progressed to SL. If all the french semi-pro clubs are capable of nurturing the next Chris Hill or Zak Hardaker, why arent the british semi-pro clubs? Why arent there products of every Championship and C1 club in SL?

By definition of being the only pro pathway in France, it stands to reason that if Catalans are to be filled with french players, they will be filled with Catalan products.

Im simply questioning whether having a whole country of young players is the benefit it seems

"having a whole country" to pick from, would be a substantial advantage, if the whole country participated in the sport of RL.
Catalan are doing ok and if the sport was serious about expansion, surely we would have a second French SL club in SL.
Sadly, with the move back to P/R, this looks less likely (unless the "extra" this club was given exemption from relegation)