JOEL TOMKINS insists Catalans Dragons are not forgetting their French foundations – and believes a good crop of homegrown talent is on the way.
Catalans underwent a radical overhaul in the off-season with 14 first-team players departing and twelve new ones coming in.
Seven French players left in Jordan Dezaria (to Hull KR), Théo Fages (Pia), Arthur Romano (Hull FC), César Rougé (Toulouse Olympique), Paul Séguier (Carcassonne), Fouad Yaha (Albi) and Tanguy Zenon (Halifax Panthers, now Huddersfield Giants), with none brought in.
They fielded just four French players in each of their opening two Super League games, then five in the third and fourth.
Dragons coach Tomkins believes there has been a gap in top talent being developed in the region and cites the lack of an Academy system like that of English sides – Catalans have only an Under 19s team, partnering with local clubs and schools for younger ages – as a cause.
“Toulouse are in the competition now, but Catalans have been flying the flag for a long time on their own, trying to bring French players through,” Tomkins told League Express.
“We haven’t got an Academy system as such, which makes it more difficult.
“I think it was the end of a cycle. A lot of French players who left the club at the end of last year had been at the club for close to a decade.
“There is a new crop coming through, like Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet, Clément Martin, Alexis Lis, Giovanni Descalzi.
“There are some really good young French players, but there might just be a slight gap between the last crop and this crop, partly due to the fact there hasn’t been an Academy at the club for seven or eight years.
“That’s had a big impact on the development of young French players and it comes down to funding – if the club could have some support to build an Academy system and maybe be part of the English academy set-up, I think that would go a long way towards the club building a new group of players.”