TOULOUSE OLYMPIQUE won their first two games in the new Super League season, winning at Wakefield Trinity and at home against Castleford Tigers.

Since then, they have lost seven games in a row, but they have not been disgraced in many of those fixtures and, in fact, were quite unlucky in some of them.

Against Catalans at Easter, for example, they had several tries disallowed before eventually losing 33-26. They could justifiably feel unlucky to have lost that game.

A week earlier, they had travelled to Leigh and gone down 21-20 in golden-point time, despite having fallen 20-0 behind earlier in the game. Their fightback was not quite enough, with Gareth O’Brien landing the decisive field-goal — something he has made a habit of.

None of us can be sure how the rest of the season will unfold, but I hope that, whatever happens, Toulouse will still be in Super League in 2027 and for many years to come.

What has impressed me most about the Toulouse club this season is the number of French players it has introduced into Super League.

For example, in the French derby at Easter, Toulouse had eight French players in their matchday 17, whereas Catalans had only three.

This is important because the French national team will be playing in the World Cup later this year, and the Super League experience of their players will be invaluable if they are to make any sort of impression in that tournament.

If they can do that, they might eventually reach the point where they can give England a competitive game once again, as they did in the early days when the sport was first introduced into France in the 1930s.

I have always been disappointed that Catalans have not introduced more French players into Super League.

In the 2026 season, they have four French players with squad numbers from one to 13: Alrix da Costa, Julian Bousquet, Franck Maria and Benjamin Garcia. They then have nine more French players named in their squad of 30: Romain Navarrete, Matthieu Laguerre, Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet, Lenny Marc, Ugo Tison, Clément Martin, Léo Darrélatour, Giovanni Descalzi and Alexis Lis.

Toulouse have seven French players with squad numbers from one to 13: Paul Marcon, Benjamin Laguerre, Thomas Lacans, Lambert Belmas, Maxime Stefani, Mathieu Jussaume and Anthony Marion. They then have seven more in their 29-man squad: Baptiste Rodriguez, Romeo Tropis, Pierre-Jean Lima, Trevor Chiffoleau, Hugo Garrigues, Mathieu Pons and César Rougé.

There are also five more French players on the books at other Super League clubs: Arthur Mourgue and Jordan Dezaria (Hull KR), Justin Sangaré (York Knights), Arthur Romano (Hull FC) and Mathieu Cozza (Huddersfield Giants).

That makes a total of 32 French players currently on the books of Super League clubs, from which the French World Cup squad will presumably be selected later in the year.

There do not appear to be any non-French players qualifying on five-year residency grounds. Unfortunately, the outstanding Olly Ashall-Bott will not quite have satisfied the five-year rule when the World Cup begins.

However, it should be possible for French coach Laurent Frayssinous to select a reasonably competitive squad from those available.

France will open their World Cup campaign against Samoa at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium on Friday, 16th October. Samoa will almost certainly have overwhelming support in the stadium and will go into the game as strong favourites.

France will then travel to Perth for their second game eight days later against England, where again they will start as underdogs, although the crowd split may not be quite as one-sided.

Their final pool game will be against Lebanon on Sunday, 1st November, back at CommBank Stadium, as part of a double-header which also includes Tonga versus Samoa.

I would love to see France win at least one game in this year’s tournament and, if they can select their strongest team, they should be competitive.

So what might that team look like?

A possible line-up could be: Arthur Mourgue; Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet, Arthur Romano, Paul Marcon, Benjamin Laguerre; Thomas Lacans, César Rougé; Lambert Belmas, Alrix da Costa, Julian Bousquet, Maxime Stefani, Mathieu Jussaume and Benjamin Garcia — with plenty of options remaining for the interchange bench.

We have seen recently that the NRL has been taking a strong interest in the French game, so a strong World Cup performance could see that interest grow further.

With Catalans also set to play a game in Paris against Wigan in early June, perhaps things are at last starting to come together for French rugby league.

What a welcome development that would be.

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 520 (May 2026)