A new year is always a time for looking ahead with hopes for the future, so what could 2025 have in store for rugby league in France?
IN FRANCE we have a very convenient tradition. We may express our best wishes for the new year until 31st January.
So, let me wish you all the best for 2025: if you’re interested by French rugby league, I’m sure you’ll excuse me for observing this national and Gallic peculiarity!
Now, what could a good 2025 year for French rugby league look like?
In late 2024, two events were good omens already.
The first one is the organisation of the women’s ‘State of Origin’ between an Eastern and a Western selection. The game was played at Saint-Estève (in the suburbs of Perpignan) and was won by the west (8-18). Strangely, the event was not so much promoted and it was complicated to find a report about the game, except a photo-reportage offered by the Federation on Instagram.
Yet, I had the opportunity to question two famous French players who confirmed the importance of the event.
Lauréane Biville, who took part in the event several times in the past (not this time) told me: “It’s important to keep organising these games. It brings to light new gifted women and it’s a kind of reward for the players who worked hard to reach that level of play. It’s also an occasion for the French national team staff to keep a close look on their key players, but also to incorporate new players. It’s an opportunity for those who want to join the French national team. You can also play with players coming from other clubs, and you can experience something different.”
Cristina Song-Puech, who plays for Déesses Catalanes, and played for the east selection this time, has a similar positive point of view towards the game, even if she was of course a bit disappointed about the result.
“Playing games at the best French level is a pleasure. There was a lot of commitment on the field despite the bad weather (very windy) and the fact we hadn’t trained together before. So on both sides, we made fouls on the pitch. When you don’t complete your sets, and spend most of the time defending, you have to pay for that.”
The second event may sound negative at first, but is eventually encouraging: a 17 year old Saint Gaudens player received a twenty year ban because he assaulted a referee during a U19 game against Limoux. Bad news travels fast, and the rugby union magazine ‘Rugbyrama’ gave some details about the event.
What is encouraging is that even on the social networks, people seem to support the decision, some even found it too lenient. Usually, there has been an unwritten rule amongst French rugby league fans, saying that only very good referees deserve respect, and if referees are insulted for example or abused, it’s probably because they are not doing their job right.
It’s a personal feeling, but I have been always very surprised that the problem of protecting referees in French rugby league seems to be disconnected from any question of ethics and seems to be regarded as a technical issue.
If too many referees are abused, there will a shortage of applicants to do the job.
I have written several times about the subject in the past, reporting the French referees’ claims.
Is it the start of a general change of attitude? 2025 will help us in judging that.
Now, what other positives could 2025 bring us?
No doubt, a good season for the Catalans Dragons who have become the flagship of French rugby league and who seem the be the only ones, so far, to break the media glass ceiling; that is to say to have their games televised on decent national media. There is always that rock on the Dragons’ road; the issue relating to the new grandstand. Bernard Guasch has been working on the issue for 10 years now, having to wait for the green light of the local authorities.
A promotion for Toulouse Olympique! They would bring with them not only what will become the third most populated city in France, but also all the south west of France, a rugby union stronghold and the heart of rugby culture in France. Alright, Toulouse may not bring that romantic vision of a rural France stuck in the past, but all the industries the south western city has on its territory should be an argument in itself. For example, how many rugby league fans know that Concorde flew for the first in time in the skies of Toulouse? I’m not anchored in the past; Concorde has been replaced by Airbus airliners, and I can assure you that the Boeing airline company can point out Toulouse on a map! Toulouse is definitively the kind of big city Super League wanted to have on board at the beginning. A French Milan or a French Manchester, I let you choose!
In Super XIII, if Carcassonne are not eventually champions this season, who are the other candidates? Albi, maybe? Or the Catalans Dragons’ reserve? But overall, if any other club rather than Carcassonne wins the Super XIII, what will they do with the victory. Try to break the media glass ceiling? No doubt it will help with the local authorities’ aids, but what’s next? FFR XIII President Baloup has mentioned an Anglo-French competition but nothing new so far. Yet, it’s in the French sporting DNA to have a European competition alongside the national one.
Talking about the Federation, the elections were held in late December. President Baloup was re-elected, but easily as his list of candidates for the board was the only one to compete. Baloup was appointed President for the first time after Luc Lacoste’s resignation in 2023. But in the previous campaign, the one which saw the victory of Lacoste’s team, three lists were in competition, and there was a proper debate. Not this time. There was an attempt to create another list but eventually it wasn’t filed in time so there wasn’t much debate anywhere except the social networks, which didn’t move beyond generalities.
2025 is to be an international year for French rugby league, with that qualifying tournament for the World Cup. Baloup suggested that France should organise the event. The only objection I would see is if something is in progress to (re)launch rugby league in Jamaica or in South Africa (in Cook Islands, the game is already established). As a Frenchman, I would of course appreciate to see that tournament played at home, but as an expansionist, I’m all ears to any other point of view about the subject. Yet, if France organises that tournament, the pressure will be on to ensure the games are not played in front of half-empty stadia and only the camera lenses of mobile phones.
2025 could be also the perfect year to capitalise on the success of the wheelchair games organised in France. The games organised in the west and in the north of the country attracted good crowds. A splendid opportunity to remind the French public that rugby league (still) exists. Wheelchair players have become ambassadors of ‘Rugby XIII’ in France. And so far their successes are not claimed by the other code, and are starting to get the attention of some local TV stations.
If I had to sum up what kind of year 2025 could be for France, I would say a year of consolidation for the code in this country. Preparation for a time of better opportunities, or a better economic climate.
This has nothing to do with magic or even having a “shoulda, coulda, woulda” attitude with the past.
This is all about being ready to attract and welcome newbies in the code with some decent conditions.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 505 (February 2025)
