I was mulling this over watching the highlights [Catalan v Cas and listening to their crowds when the tries were scored.

imagine this

If it was the other way round us (wire) playing in the French league because (for the sake of argument) the French league is a lot stronger.
We had to travel to France every other week against teams we have little to no history with.
We had to find genuine intensity to gee the team up, vastly outnumbered on the away terrace and no home derby matches, hell no home country matches.

Would we enjoy the game even half as much ?
Do the French fans and team deserve a lot more respect than we currently give ?

Another point

Do people see the Catalans' status as a super league club as a temporary measure and by temporary i mean until the French league takes off and has at least 13 maybe 14 teams at NL1 level. This could be 20 years but if it was the case would we lose Le Catalan ?

Is super league the only hope to improve the overall French game ?

I think crowds on the continent tend to be a little different than over here, aye.

As for something minor, I'm surprised there isn't an option to have the Super League website in French!

And I think the French teams should always be in Super League - a Super League of about 12 UK teams and 4 French teams would be trés bien.

A SL of 4 French teams , 2 Spanish , 2 German , 2 Italian , 2 Scottish , 2 Welsh, 2 from London and Leeds and W1gan would be better still

no leigh ?

No , we'd be ' slumming it ' with you lot in the Championship

I'd like to see a French top flight and our top flight where the winner of each countries knock out meets in the gf rotated between old Trafford and say Paris. A propper European cluc champion the winner of this plays the wcc. A total pipe dream but a nice one

Clearly the approach needed is anyone within the game of rugby league should be treated as part of an international brotherhood (and sisterhood for that matter).

As for respect for French fans, how would England RL look if the following had occurred during it's history:-

1. The game was banned outright.
2. RL players were interrogated a la the Inquisition.
3. The RL headquarters was burned down.
4. All of the game's assets were seized and never returned to it.

???

And all for following a game all of us here profess to love...

Of course the French deserve tremendous respect. Only a true love for the game would have allowed it to survive in such brutal conditions.

In answer to this, I posted this (below) some time back here. It still holds true in my view.
[i
Typically the answer for French rugby league already exists in their glorious past.

The model for the game in about the period 1945-55 should be given detailed and careful consideration by the French rugby league hierarchy.

Basically, this involves a structure along the lines of the following:

1. A Championship Top Division of about 12-14 clubs (played for the Max Rousie Shield).

2. A French Club Competition involving the broader rugby league club community in France, thus allowing the growth and encouragement of newer clubs (played for the Lord Derby Cup).

This is what French rugby league needs to get back to, first and foremost.

The ability to use the ESL as a further platform to publicise the game is all a bit of a modern bonus for French rugby league, which should be ADDED to the strength of the original base.

As for teams in the Championship, I don't know how I can be clearer about how unequivocal it is that it again be based around what I describe as the HAND of French rugby league's traditional strength, the five big cities over which rugby league has previously had influence: namely, and in no particular order - Paris, Mille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse.

This was the case in the period 1945-55. And should be now as well.

Added to this would be the passionate rugby de villages of Carcassonne, Perpignan, Albi, Avignon, Villeneuve and probably Lezignan, Cavaillon and Carpentras.

A return to the Cote Basque would also be in order, possibly through Pau or a Cote Basque XIII.

At this time (circa 1945-55), the French rugby league was also benefiting from regular matches in other major centres such as Nantes (as referred to in an earlier post), Grenoble and Limoges - as examples only.

The passionate underlying strength of the amateur game must be similarly invigorated. At its strongest this allowed clubs like Arcachon and especially Cahors and Lavardac to compete with the professional outfits.

All of this combined to the betterment of French rugby league to produce one of the great international sides in history in the same period (1945-55)...[/i

never thought I'd say this to our cross channel associates but amen brother

Catalans has been a great addition to SL and I hope to see another couple of French teams join in over the next decade or so. It is the only way they can improve to Int standards imo. I can't ever see a time again when there is enough interest to have French TV paying the money needed to run a FT league in France.

Why not?

They didn't cover other sports until recently and rugby league has a lot longer history in France than many other sports.

Frankly, you know nothing about the game in France.

And little more about it in Australia.

because in the "good old days" it didnt cost anything like 3million euros to run a prof team! Only 2 countries in the world can afford to run a FT prof RL comp and that is beacuse they are the only ones where TV is willing to fork out huge sums to cover it.

Show me any inkling at all that a French TV company is willing to spend 30million+ Euros a year to show RL. Live in your pipedream world all you like but France is never getting a SL equivalent league in my lifetime, neither is NZ nor PNG. Only way to develop these countries at an elite level is to bring them into leagues that can generate that sort of media cash.