barnyia

12 players missing for Leigh it says in the local paper

Nice touch from st Helens giving Cesar Rougé a st Helens shirt signed by the 17 players he played against on his debut.

He did a good job with England, better than than Wayne Bennett. I've definitely changed my opinion of him at the Catalan, it seems he has improved the club, I'm even happy with the way he is bringing through the younger players, he has made tough decisions with the reserve team and their coaches etc that couldn't have been easy! I have a feeling he had quite a few things out of his control at the beginning.

Frayssinous son has just started too and he came along and gave a great speech about the future of French rl etc, very motivational for the young lads.

My son has just started at the Carcassonne one, they've just finished a week of team bonding etc, walked over 100kms visiting cathare castles, kayaking, fitness sessions, ball work sessions and a match at the end, my son loves it! A bit of mental training with wake ups at 5am for a CrossFit session, carrying 20kg stones using team work down from the summets of one of their hikes up a mountain, hill sprints as one of them drop some litter. With all the families invited at the end for a drink and a feed. Some great photos on the pole espoir Facebook page

Age range between 14 and 18.

They're already in clubs, the club's help the parents to pay for the pole and school, they train together, play a few games against older teams, French selections or touring teams, they go back home and to their clubs on Fridays.

I doubt that the club's will release their players for a one off game as they may not be allowed back in without quarantine etc Last year the English players had to stay in Australia,

Is that not the same for most rugby union international crowds?

Says in the paper that Drinkwater and dudson where having fitness tests this morning.

Great to see so many ex pros in the French elite. Hopefully Lézignan will use him to teach the younger players in the first team and coaching sessions for the players through the rugby school. Which is something the club should have done with the foreign players over the years, only a couple of first grade players have ever got involved with the rugby school.

Euro xiii another good example, Spain rugby league another !

I'm not for mergers, I was putting a question forward, I'd leave you st Helens if you want, as for a pro league in France full of French players,I'd love that too, then the English super League can go the same way with just English players in the league and give the Aussies and kiwis a decent game

Toulouse a small town?

To be fair if France never had a super League team the game would probably be dead now over here,

Manly northern eagles didn't do too well

Catalan super League team came from three teams , xiii Catalan, St Estève and st Cyprien, the first two still have full junior set ups and a first team.

Catalan and Toulouse as stand alone clubs. That's the same theory that people said when it was proposed so I guess it's not a good time still!

As it seems interest is dropping in the sport should we now go back to the original idea of Maurice Lyndsay with Calder, Humberside, Cumbria, Manchester etc with Toulouse and the dragons?

I've been a couple of times when I've been visiting family, my kids felt intimidated and asked why everyone was so angry and how they can speak about their own players the way they do, I suppose a it depends how lucky you are with seat allocation, the worst was for a grand final. A couple of angry fans where shown on sky a couple of times last night and their team was winning We've seen a few angry fans at the Catalan too but usually towards the ref!

It's not just the postponements that have made me lose interest but the games on random days, Monday games with weekends free Wednesday games etc, I've lost track and have probably watched 2 games on TV this year.

Catalan did it a couple of weeks ago. The Catalan are just behind Wigan with number of games played i think.

He says in an interview today that he'd like to stay in France for another year or so, it would be great to see him in elite 1!

Professional career? Are Lézignan classed as professional?