Given the talk about what England's best preparation for international rugby league and whether the Exiles game is good enough I decided to write an article about how I think the focus needs to be put on improving the French national team through Super League.

[urlhttp://thisisrugbyleague.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/time-for-a-french-invasion/[/url

Fill it full of Aussies, worked for England and Catalan.

Yep. Arguments I've been making for a long time.

Been saying it for a long time that SL clubs should sing more french players than an unheard of Aussie.

he would probably be more determined, train harder and come at half the cost, and i bet they would be more successful than a lot of the overseas players. Marc herbert anyone?

Posted on here several years ago 5/6 , that to improve the quality of players at ' emerging nations ' [ I suggested Russia at the time , that you would place say a dozen of them at SL clubs [ in pairs to train full time , but have them registered with Championship [ then NL teams , essentially a dual reg system

They would gain the benifit of full time training and possibly playing at semi pro level , the NL clubs would gain a player , an all round win/win situation , the only potential problem being if they did a runner over here and refused to go back when the deal was over

Is the reason Catalan came into the Super League but in my opinon there have gone backwards,yes Catalan has been a massive success but the national side havnt progressed.

You'd need to have central contracts for them, because it'd be unfair on the clubs involved to have to pick up this enforced expense. But other than that, it seems like a workable idea.

But really, the work needs to be done at grassroots. Increasing the player pool is the only real way to improve an international side

Part of the idea being that the players would pick up good coaching techniques which they would eventually take back and would help develop the next generation of player

the RFL needs to put all thier eggs in one basket and concentrate all of the money spread out on France, Wales and Scotland and pour it all in to France. Wales and Scotland should come under GB. We are spreading the wealth to thin.

French players not counting on the cap would be another way on improving the French.

I agree but because of funding from Sport England the lead National team needs to be England. Hence why we have an England and England Knights team. IMO ideally England Knights would be England, England should be GB and the pinacle of UK rugby league, with England, Scotland and Ireland feeding into GB.

i couldn't give a sheeiitte about em to be honest, its not our responsibility and we can't force a good rugby league team upon them its gotta come from themselves. We have enough problems with our own national team

Have an GB ashes series eveyr 4 years, which just about every fan wants

If improving the international game is a goal then a stronger French side is important. We've already seen what England have to resort to just to get a decent game but playing the Exiles suggests the international game is on its last legs rather than about to grow.

The better the standard of rugby from other nations the better it is for England and the more respectable the international game looks.

Besides, it's not going to hamper English sides if they sign a couple of French players or get a couple into their academy system, so it won't have a negative effect on our own national team. Therefore we can continue fixing our own problems while potentially helping the French.

The one French team in SL can't find 20 quality French players, what makes people think there are players waiting to be signed by SL clubs? Making it more attractive for English clubs to sign French players will only weaken les catalans

i think what was meant that if the players trained in better enviroments and played at a higher standard. Then they should improve as individuals and improve the French team. But at the same time who would be better player for English teams an experienced southern hemisphere player or youth player?

Fair point but i don't want us bringing french players in just for the sake of it if they aren't significantly better than what we've got, we aren't the international problem solver we can't be trying to improve the french game for our sake, the french have got to improve their own game for their own sake

Simples really,kick out all english teams except for wigan,leeds,saints and warrington replce with 4 from wales[wrexham,neath,cardiff and swansea4 from scotland[edinbrugh,glasgow,aberdeen and perth 4 from france[catalans,paris,toulouse and mille see I have come up with a daft idea can I take over from richard lewis



Just think of the sky deal we would have,and our game would grow as all the clubs cast aside would become feeder clubs for the english clubs meaning we could play the nrl top 4 on a end of season playoff

English teams in Super League can't find enough quality players to maintain a decent standard throughout Super League so a bit more competition wouldn't go amiss.

The main focus would be on getting clubs to sign junior players from France and they do have some decent players at that level. In fact I think their youth teams have beaten England and Australia in the last few years. The problem is they will rarely develop into anything special because the academy set up isn't great. It's basically the same as England when compared to Australia.

It might weaken Catalans at first but it would be no worse than when they first came into Super League. At that point they didn't have many decent players but they've soon developed a reasonable number.

They will still be able to sign up their key players and could perhaps have a key player exemption or dispensation to even it up so they can still secure some of their most important French players.