{"id":930587,"date":"2026-10-16T19:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T19:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930587\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T19:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T19:18:10","slug":"french-leaders-call-for-nrl-help-in-impassioned-plea-for-super-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930587\/","title":{"rendered":"French leaders call for NRL ‘help’ in impassioned plea for Super League deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senior French rugby league figures Laurent Frayssinous and Ben Garcia have directly called for help from the NRL to grow the sport in the country, following their 78-4 defeat to Samoa<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The loss in the pool B\/C clash was France\u2019s biggest-ever World Cup loss, beating their previous record of 62-4 against the same opposition at the delayed 2021 edition in England.<\/p>\n

Their plea comes amid the backdrop of talks between the NRL and Super League over a proposed partnership; however, the deadline for the deal passed without an official agreement in place<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\u2018We need a bit of help\u2019<\/p>\n

The change in the scoreline between both the World Cup fixtures represents the shifting positions of the respective sides in the international game. 18 of Samoa\u2019s 19-man match-day squad ply their trade in the NRL, with recent Super League winner Jazz Tevaga the only player outside of the Australian competition, while France\u2019s squad is mainly Super League and France-based players, with some players in the side featuring in Super XIII.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a question for you: do you think the NRL is far better now than four years ago?\u201d said Frayssinous<\/a>. \u201cThen you have the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a better team (than the last World Cup) with more experience and better players. But that\u2019s them; and I want to focus on us, and what I can tell you is we have good players in our camp. We just need a bit more connection, so we\u2019ll be better next weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRL keeps growing and keeps getting better every year,\u201d he continued. \u201cWatching NRL every year, it\u2019s at the top, at the top, at the top; a step up, step up, step up.<\/p>\n

Rating the Hull FC and Hull KR players in France\u2019s historic defeat as Rovers man stands out<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that mean Super League doesn\u2019t (get better every year)? No. Super League is better every year, but not as fast as the NRL. That\u2019s the difference; the smartness, the skill the guys have under pressure and under fatigue, week in, week out. That\u2019s something we need to improve in Super League, simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne performance doesn\u2019t reflect the level of Super League or the NRL, just us. We\u2019ll take our medicine, and we\u2019ll be better next weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

While France<\/a> are hoping for improved performances against England and Lebanon over the rest of the pool stages, the long-term growth of the national side still remains a looming question, and their senior leaders have launched an impassioned plea for help from the NRL to turn things around.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all competitors, but it\u2019s the reality of where we are in France,\u201d said captain Garcia. \u201cFor example, when Samoa had Marinier\u2019s injury, they put on Faalogo, who is one of the best players in the NRL. We don\u2019t have this luck in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to survive, and it\u2019s hard, but we\u2019re all passionate about the sport and we\u2019ll keep going. We\u2019re passionate about rugby league; you don\u2019t understand the situation in France, but there are people like Laurent and like us in the dressing room. We need a bit of help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the NRL have done here is so good,\u201d added Frayssinous. \u201cWhat they bring to the game is great. We want the NRL to do the same in Europe; for us there\u2019s no question.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a few things we want the NRL to invest in. We spoke about the last four years and how the game has evolved and is better over the last four years, and that\u2019s what we want in Super League. For that, it\u2019s a full circle: do we invest in the staff, the players or the environment, and that\u2019s what you want for things to be better.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s about money, but it\u2019s also about strategy and how you grow the game in Europe. What the NRL have done here is a perfect example to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrassroots first, definitely,\u201d the head coach continued. \u201cThere are some great Super League clubs; Catalans is a great Super League club like Wigan, they\u2019re already well-settled. But instead of having four clubs in their region, can we have 10 (feeding in)? Can we have more children who play rugby league in France and in Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we want; that\u2019s the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Why Samoa can WIN the World Cup: Everything we learned from record France victory<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior French rugby league figures Laurent Frayssinous and Ben Garcia have directly called for help from the NRL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-930587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}