League Express editor MARTYN SADLER would like to see more French players in the Catalans Dragons’ starting lineup.
Catalans Dragons announced their 2025 squad numbers last week and they have named only four French players – Arthur Romano (3), Arthur Mourgue (7), Benjamin Garcia (9) and Julian Bousquet (10) – in their top 13 players.
That seems to me to be remarkably disappointing.
In 2024 they had eight French players named in their starting thirteen.
Apart from the four mentioned above, they had Paul Séguier, Mathieu Laguerre, Théo Fages and Fouad Yaha.
Catalans coach Steve McNamara can, of course, allocate squad numbers to his players in whatever order he sees fit.
But there is some symbolic significance in the small number of French players who make his starting team.
When Catalans first entered Super League in 2006 we were told that ultimately their presence would lead to a revival of the France national team.
That has singularly failed to happen and it doesn’t look to be on the horizon at any time soon.
At one time we were told that the Catalans had to contract NRL players and English Super League players to avoid being relegated.
But now we are in the IMG era of gradings determining which league a club plays in, the Dragons are safely a grade A club and they need have no fear of demotion.
So it would be perfectly possible for them to field a team that was almost entirely made up of French players.
On September 2, 2022 the Dragons fielded 16 French players in a squad of 17 against Wigan, with Josh Drinkwater the only non-Frenchman. They played creditably while going down 48-4.
It was the last time they fielded a team with so many French players.
But most of those players are no longer with the Dragons.
I can’t help feeling disappointed.
This article is taken from Martyn Sadler’s ‘Talking Rugby League’ column in this week’s League Express.
