In reply to the op. NO.

France are currently some distance below England in the international standings and this is likely to remain for some time.
Of course they have some excellent players, just nowhere near enough of them to compete.

Its the reliance on Dragons players who struggle away from home that holds them back.

Maybe once (If) Toulouse are established and the players can come from a number of top tier clubs in France then yes, they can.

But Catalan struggled and a lot of the squad come (naturally) from them.

No, not until they have more FT players playing in SL or the NRL. Take a look at how many kiwi eligible players there are in those two comps, that's how many frenchmen you'd need for them to put a competitive national side together. We need Toulouse in SL, better Jnr system funding in France and better scouting by NRL and SL clubs of French junior teams, though it is probably harder to get a 16 year old French lad to move to Yorkshire than a kiwi kid to move to Sydney.

Agree with that. The language barrier is areal disincentive to young French moving over here.

But I'd still introduce salary cap benefits for clubs signing French players in an effort to encourage clubs to sign more of them. If there were some method of ensuring Catalans weren't significantly disadvantaged by the rule.

I think your (alleged*) enthusiasm is admirable but your analysis leaves a bit to be desired at times.

I don't think Garcia is better than Fakir. Jamal was a great talent and certainly at this point a better player.

Escare is a fantastic player but needs to work harder on the errors. He reminds me a little of the way Billy Slater was early in his career - enormous potential but too prone to making crucial errors. Eventually this was largely removed from Slater's game and he became a great.

Pelissier is an excellent hooker so you are right there.

Yaha looks a great young talent too but it is a bit early to put him past the likes of Ducasse, Voron, Marsolan, Contrastin, Cantoni, Moya, Pellerin and the like to pick a few at random!

*still not convinced

In any event, this is the biggest game for France in some time. They need a good performance so this becomes a regular event. It is a shame the regular two Test per year schedule between France and GB/England was ever allowed to deteriorate but that is international rugby league admin in a nutshell.

I watched Levy Nzoungou playing for St Helens youth v Wests Tigers yesterday and he is a beast for his age, if he continues to develop he will be a vital player for France in the coming years.

Boudebza is also an excellent hooker

France are still way behind Eng, Nz and Aus. We should be playing them every year so they can improve and one day compete and win games. They are improving though with more players across Super League and the NRL.

Is this game on the box?

It doesn't seem to be. Why not!??!

No

Next!

Nigel Wood didn't want rugby league to become overexposed in the period of the RUWC. So no TV.

I wouldn't be surprised if Nigel doesn't even show up at LSV.

The French need at least 20 year program which sees playing numbers rise every year.
England and UK as a whole needs the same to challenge the Aussie on a regular basis.

So you were talking rubbish then?

Since its not on TV I'm sure the RL community will come out in force to support the international game, and show the RWC what it can do, by packing out the LSV to its capacity.