{"id":628162,"date":"2026-06-08T21:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628162\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T21:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:28:11","slug":"its-business-nigel-wood-comments-on-future-of-french-involvement-in-super-league-as-jon-wilkin-fires-passionate-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628162\/","title":{"rendered":"“It’s business” – Nigel Wood comments on future of French involvement in Super League as Jon Wilkin fires passionate response"},"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

Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has fired back at comments made by RFL Chairman Nigel Wood regarding the future of Catalans Dragons and French involvement in Super League.<\/p>\n

Wilkin, who was a studio analyst pre and post-Wigan Warriors\u2019 victory over the French side in Paris at the weekend, responded to comments made by Wood which aired as part of the broadcast.<\/p>\n

Wood, who was a key individual in bringing the Dragons into Super League in 2006, was asked about the French side\u2019s 20-year stay in Super League, and what lies ahead for them.<\/p>\n

The RFL Chair said: \u201cCatalans have been a great success story. It was a strong rugby league-playing part of the world anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came together as two clubs, Saint-Esteve and Treize Catalans, they built on the foundations they already had, and they\u2019ve gone from strength to strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a club now that represents its region very well. It\u2019s been to finals, it\u2019s played at the Nou Camp in Barcelona. It\u2019s represented the sport, and it represents the region very well, so I\u2019m pleased with everything that\u2019s happened over the last 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody enjoys having Catalans in the competition, but it\u2019s business at the end of the day. We\u2019re looking all the time to work with the French Federation, to make rugby league in France as strong as it can possibly be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Super League pundit Jon Wilkin responds to Nigel Wood comments<\/p>\n

It was that final sentence that Wilkin picked out as the \u201cmost telling.\u201d Catalans and Toulouse\u2019s inclusion in Super League has always been a big debate, and whether they contribute enough to the competition in terms of finance and exposure.<\/p>\n

Catalans and Warrington\u2019s Challenge Cup Final at Wembley in 2018 only brought in an attendance of just over 50,000, but when you consider that both Hull KR and Wigan brought just over 56,000 fans this year, the argument for the French sides not bringing fans can\u2019t really be used.<\/p>\n

Firing back at Wood\u2019s comments, Wilkin said: \u201cIt\u2019s glowing praise from Nigel Wood, isn\u2019t it? And then the last sentence, for me, is the most telling of it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like \u2018isn\u2019t this brilliant, but it has to be a business?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll say this, if it has to be about business, then Huddersfield shouldn\u2019t be in the competition. They don\u2019t bring away fans. Minimal support. [They] rattle around a big stadium, bottom of the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be really careful when we say something.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants have been tipped to be the team that falls out of Super League next season, with London Broncos, who recorded a 134-0 win over North Wales Crusaders at the weekend, all but confirmed to be their replacement, should the RFL make a change.<\/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":"Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has fired back at comments made by RFL Chairman Nigel Wood regarding the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-628162","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\/628162","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=628162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}