{"id":497463,"date":"2026-03-27T02:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/497463\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T02:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:15:10","slug":"france-handed-major-rugby-league-world-cup-boost-with-nrl-quartet-set-to-confirm-allegiance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/497463\/","title":{"rendered":"France handed major Rugby League World Cup boost with NRL quartet set to confirm allegiance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Rugby League World Cup will kick off in just under seven months time, and for France, they have been handed a huge boost in terms of their players available for selection.<\/p>\n

The French side have not reached the last four of the competition since 1992, and have never managed to lift the trophy though they reached the final in both 1954 and 1968.<\/p>\n

The growth of other nations such as Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Papua New Guinea have shown a blueprint for France that they can eventually reach those heights once again, and with a number of French-eligible players in the NRL, their chances of success are already growing.<\/p>\n

France head coach, Laurent Frayssinous and F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Fran\u00e7aise de Rugby \u00e0 XIII president, Dominique Baloup have both been in Australia for a tour of the nation\u2019s training facilities when they travel for the competition in October.<\/p>\n

The Tricolours will be staying across both Sydney and Perth for the tournament, and are utilising the ongoing partnership with Roosters head coach Trent Robinson, who is a former Catalans Dragons boss and the France Rugby League coaching director.<\/p>\n

During their trip down under, Frayssinous also used the opportunity to try and convince a number of keen players to confirm their allegiance to the country, and one of them has already pledged his availability to the country.<\/p>\n

Latrell Siegwalt, a young South Sydney Rabbitohs prospect, has confirmed to the boss that he will represent France this year, after qualifying through his paternal grandfather.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old, who plays fullback or in the halves, joined the Rabbitohs this season after two stand-out seasons in the Queensland Cup for Redcliffe Dolphins and Souths Logan Magpies.<\/p>\n

Frayssinous confirmed to the RLWC website this week: \u201cLatrell is very, very keen and he wants to play for his heritage on his father\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is very excited. I spent 30 or 40 minutes with him and I explained to him what playing for France is like. He liked what I said and I liked what I heard from him, as well, about how proud he is to one day wear the Tricolours jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is very keen, so it is up to him to perform week in and week out to be able to play for France. That\u2019s what we need, to have a strong 24-man squad for the World Cup we need players to push each other throughout the season and play the best they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luke Robinson sacked, Hull KR struggling and why it could actually be Warrington Wolves\u2019 year? \u2013 click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

France handed Rugby League World Cup boost<\/p>\n

Also featuring down under and eligible for France is Enzo Griffier, the 20-year-old outside back currently playing for Sydney Roosters. Griffier has already played three matches for France, including their World Cup qualification final against Jamaica, where he scored two tries.<\/p>\n

Louis Grossemy, the Canterbury Bulldogs back rower, is another who featured in that game and qualifies through his father. Frayssinous was left impressed with what he saw from the 22-year-old in his first call-up last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was his first time with the group, and he was great,\u201d the boss said. \u201cWe had a great camp, we went to London and did an opposed session with Australia and came back to France to prepare for our match against Jamaica in Albi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of trust in Louis and the same with Enzo Griffier. Enzo played the year before against England so he already knows what it means to play for France and what type of culture we have with the French team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lastly, another Roosters man, Zac Sarfati, is eligible through his grandfather. the full-back played for the LA Roosters in the Las Vegas 9\u2019s this year and is another man hoping to make his international debut this year.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rugby League World Cup will kick off in just under seven months time, and for France, they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-497463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}