As English fans got excited for the Ashes, France may have been left out of the Australians’ schedule, but their World Cup qualifier against Jamaica took on extra significance. 

ON Saturday, 25th October England played the first game of the Ashes series against their Australian rivals. After a 22-year break, this is the return of a big event and of course, the readers of Rugby League World will have savoured it.

On the same day, France played – and won – a World Cup qualifier in Albi, Tarn, against their Jamaican guests. This is not a first in the history of the two nations; the last encounter between both teams was in 2017 and it was a big victory for France. It was a friendly game which was televised on France 0, a late free-to-air channel of the France Television group. But to be honest, it wasn’t such a big event outside of the Treiziste community. 

In the Ashes series, what is at stake is ‘only’ sport. The victors of the Ashes will be the favourites for the next World Cup in Australia. The other team will be considered their main challenger. It is as simple as that, but at least Australian and British fans can afford to focus only on the sporting aspects.

Regarding the France v Jamaica game, things were completely different. Of course, World Cup qualification was at stake, but unless my countrymen forgot their rugby, I couldn’t see them losing against what is yet a very decent team with a group of players evolving in the British competitions, amongst them AJ Wallace, who plays for Toulouse Olympique.

But life is hard in rugby league. Especially this year, as the system of World Cup qualification is unfair; Jamaica playing France in France, South Africa playing Cook Islands in Oceania. And only two spots left. Too bad for the Americas and Africa, but don’t worry, I’m sure that World Rugby or R360 have plans for them! But at least France benefited from this system and became the second and last European nation to qualify. 

But what was at stake was beyond the pitch.

This is definitively the reconnection of French rugby league with the French public. 

And this is not a cakewalk. 

With the perspective of the Aussies coming to the Northern Hemisphere for the Ashes, there were some fans here hoping that Australia would play France. Not only as an opportunity to get some extra exposure for our national team but also an opportunity for Laurent Frayssinous’ men to play at the highest level.

Of course, there would have been no suspense for the result. Australia would have probably beat France easily… or less easily as expected? We will never know. Because it seems that today’s rugby league can’t afford unbalanced games.

And if someday, you manage to meet and play one of the biggest rugby league nations, too heavy a defeat can lead you to some kind of sporting ostracism.

Of course, it’s more a collateral damage rather than a clear intention. The excuses, the given reasons, are always economic. Yet, this autumn, football and rugby union offer a full programme of international fixtures and accept that risk. 

But this time the reason given by the media to explain why Australia won’t play France is original.

In the local newspaper L’Indépendant, Laurent Frayssinous, coach of the French national team, and a few days later Dominique Baloup, President of the French federation, on the social networks, declared literally that the trade union of the Australian players refused a proposal for Australia to play a warm up game against France. The expression used by Dominique Baloup was even “vetoed”!

I must say that I couldn’t believe what I read. And I was trying to picture the reason why a trade union of players would refuse to play France. I imagined the darkest assumptions. 

But I was ready to give that trade union the benefit of the doubt so I contacted them.

From what I understand, no formal offer to play France was made to the Rugby League Players Association (RLPA).

But the devil is in the details and the truth has to be found through sophisticated formulations and a careful language. Among the details: a vague idea was expressed by NRL for the Kangaroos to visit France but nothing to do with sport: the idea was to visit Australian war memorials. But it seems that the  Kangaroos had no budget for that!

And it seems also that besides the idea of a curtain raiser between a selection of Australian players and France, a game between the Kangaroos and the Chanticleers was never intended. Both the NRL and RLPA would have never been aware of any game of this kind. 

Nevertheless, I cannot blame Fraysinnous and Baloup for their “simplification”. We got the music right even if the lyrics were a bit distorted! 

But all this is concerning because it shows some kind of slight disregard of all Australian parties for France and for growing international rugby league. 

Anyway, France got a consolation prize and a luxurious one: two days training with the Kangaroos. No doubt it will benefit our players in sporting terms but in terms of communication for the public in France it’s “unsaleable”.

The Ashes may be televised in France by BeIN Sport, and it will be appreciated by connoisseurs, but the series will be ignored by a large part of the public. Nothing compares with a regular international calendar and its Test matches, which belongs to the French sporting DNA.

I wouldn’t like to be in the Federation’s shoes: the national federation has to be like a square peg in a round international hole.

First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 514 (November 2025)