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Well done to BBC (I know we don't say this very often!) but the pre-game feature on French RL and the Nazi/Vichy connections to RU and the injustices suffered by RL have for far too long been hidden away. Hope this gets a lot more publicity!

I'm absolutely astounded by some so called 'Rugby League Fans'. Here we have a group of people investing millions into the sport of Rugby League and all these people can do is try to dismantle and discredit the hard work that's bring done. Totally sad and pathetic.

Today has debunked the following myths: 1. Expansion into France has failed 2. French players are squad players and not key players for Catalans 3. McNamara is a rubbish coach who won't win anything and doesn't know what he's doing. 4. No one watches Catalans away from home 5. The BBC secretly hate RL and promote union as much as they can. 6. Catalan cant win away from home. 7. The French bottle it in the big games 8. Richard Lewis was wrong to put Catalans into a British SL and protect them with liecensing. 9. Attendances matter and is what should be focussed on

So I overall think that expanding the Championship to 14, and reducing League One is probably the right thing to do, but to move the goalposts so late in the day, with barely a handful of games left doesn't sit right with me at all - even if my club is likely to benefit hugely.

In the history of our game things are happening. Catalan win the cup. Toronto with a chance of promotion. The continued rise of Tolouse. Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, PNG, all raise the profile of the game, players now choosing to play for these nations instead of Australia and NZ. The ability to spread the game has never had a better chance.

What a whirlwind career it has been for Tony Gigot. Coming through from Avignon, he moved to England to feature in the London Broncos youth team. Signed for Catalans in 2010 and was probably thrust in too early and his inconsistency impacted him. Was lent to Toulouse for 2011-12 before being released by the Dragons. Went back to Avignon to play in the Elite for 2012-13, before getting a shot down under with Cronulla. He did not play in the NRL during his year there and found himself back at London in 2014 for a cameo before again re-signing for Avignon for the Elite 2014-15 season. Here he shone, perhaps with the benefit of his year down under and experience and maturity gained from it. Catalans snapped him back up after the end of Elite season in May 2015 where he’s continued to flourish. In February 2017, he is banned for 2 years for an alleged incident at a drug test. He appealed and his ban was reduced to 3 months, and he was back playing again in April 2017. However the anti doping authority further appealed and his ban was reinstated from August 2017, throwing his career in doubt yet again. Gigot appealed again and was finally given the green light to resume his career in February 2018. 6 months later he has led the Catalans Dragons to be the first French team to win the Challenge Cup and the first Frenchman to collect the Lance Todd trophy. It really is an inspirational tale and acts as a good example for those who have belief and never give up.

I'll be the first to say it... How many empty seats will there be at Wembley if they get to the Final?

Enough with this. Southern Catalonia is a political mess. It has nothing to do with sports. I know some independentists went crazy when they learned we had Els Segadors as hymn and saw it as an opportunity to strengthen their claim to be united as a country. Some of Puigdemont fans on Twitter are claiming that the Spanish state pressured the RFL into not playing Els Segadors just before the game. They should understand Els Segadors is mostly folklore here, it bears no political motives. We should not put ourselves in danger for them. The French state won't tolerate us getting behind the secession claim. We are a sports club and should remain so. Winning the Challenge Cup opens new opportunities, the priorities are the Perpignan-Toulouse axis and raising TV contracts.

As the title states....just a thread to say" YES I enjoyed the game and "Had a good time"....no moaning or crowd talk please! Are you with me brothers and sisters? Positive replies only 🙂

Good grief, not another waste of time. Delete the thread, please

Is this their first step towards entering League 1?

The Wembley Arch, lit up in Catalan colours.

No it’s obvious to anyone with a brain that you have no idea what you’re talking about having never been to the ground, are in no position to know what the figures are and are only able to claim to know because they create enough interest to get their games televised into the lounge rooms of whinging, pedantic bores like you who think their ignorant view from thousands of miles away is more credible than the official attendance figures. They’ll also note no other club has such constant questioning of their figures or any of the other ludicrous double standards consistently applied to Toronto.

Above criticism? You’re ###### kidding. All they get is ridiculous criticism, most of it based on lies and ignorance. Go to social media and have a look at how many dopey flatcaps whinge about them costing the game money, cheating the salary cap, no away fans, causing visa issues, having “no Canadian players” and even having the temerity to have a wealthy backer, as if that’s wrong. The only reason these losers can whinge about Toronto crowds is because they get their games televised into the UK, something northern clubs can’t even manage despite Sky owning the rights. Someone has paid to show the other clubs’ games and still don’t think it’s worth it.

Be carful or this thread could get binned to the pit of hell. (XCode Forum) Great to see the BBC give some background to the appalling history of what went on in France under the Vichy government. Not only a small piece before the game but also references by Dave Woods during commentary and a plug for The Forbidden Game. Well done Aunty Beeb

Oh also please don't waste another decade and get Toulouse in Super League pronto to really help French RL to capitalise on this.

Just seeing French players being interviewed was fantastic. Little things like that help to smash stereotypes.

Best of luck to the cabin crew on that 1 am flight back to Perpignan

A great day for French Rugby League and Rugby League in general.

You can shove your crowd thread up your backside, superb game

Seriously - with 5 games to go you change the rules? At absolute worst it should at least have been sorted before the final 7 games of the Champ Shield. Rochdale v Swinton takes on a whole new dimension now. Perhaps the Bulls did know something when they upped their season ticket prices. Are we the only professional sport that does this? In fact, the word professional should be stripped from RL's CV.

Wooah steady lads, can't have optimism on the forum,the negative brigade and little no it all will be after you now. 😂😂😂 For what it's worth it will be tough to win every game from here on in (regular season), make the playoffs though and anything can happen in one off "do or die" games. Back to business this Sunday against Cov and then a trip over the Pennines in what could be a crucial game v York (who incidentally I rate as the best side in the division) , hanging in by a thread but it's not over just yet for the Yeds. If we stay down so be it, we will just have to take the RFLs £100000+ next season and have another go at it, obviously games next season will not be reported on,no Twitter or Facebook,no website,no info from the club,matches at unspecified venues,an Oldham born and bred coach with a squad of born and bred Oldham players (birth certificates will be checked),the scouting network (which will be a new,secret organisation) will be banned from recruiting outside the Oldham border ,God forbid they stray into the wastelands outside the borough,clearly there is no talent outside our area worthy of a shirt. Sounds like a plan to me, don't tell anyone though,we don't want to give "the negative" any more to moan about!🤣🤣🤣 Up the Yeds!

Liew is the best journalist out there, without question. I loved the paragraph: There was a moment about 10 minutes in when Michael McIlorum steamed out of the line and charged at his opposite number Daryl Clark, who had made the grave error of pondering just a millisecond too long on the ball. McIlorum didn’t just pick Clark’s pockets: he emptied his bank account, took over his Netflix subscription and raided his fridge. And if it was just a single skirmish in an 80-minute war, it seemed, symbolically, to sum up the game as well as any other.

I was at the panel discussion and social evening, it was a terrific night out and all the front-office and players stayed afterwards to chat with fans. This is a class organization and doing so many things right in terms of making fans welcome. We particularly wanted to tell Gaz O'Brien that bouncing conversions off the streetcars is a great big deal to fans. He hadn't realized that's why he gets such big cheers when he's accomplished it. Apart from the good news about possibly having pies and food trucks in our future, I was very glad to hear that Wolfpack plans to stay at Lamport for the foreseeable future. Despite the whinging and second-guessing from the armchairs of people who've never visited, it's a great venue in the right location. I was also intrigued by Bob Jowett's comments - the newly-elected president of Canada Rugby League and a Yorkshireman. He talked about the importance of new demographics when looking for new fans, noting that places like Batley, Keighley and Dewsbury today have high south Indian and Muslim populations but that the food choices are "pork pies and pork sausage rolls". Food for thought for all clubs, in more ways than one.