France Names World Cup Squad

FRANCE has become the first nation to name their official team for next month’s Rugby League World Cup in Australia, releasing an impressive 23-man line-up featuring 14 English Super League players.

Among the 14 are 12 members of the Catalans Dragons who lost their Super League elimination final to Trent Barrett’s Wigan side last weekend.

Three players – captain Jerome Guisset (Catalans Dragons), Laurent Carrasco (Villeneuve, France) and Julien Rinaldi (Harlequins London) – all played in the last World Cup in 2000; while another three will make their debuts for France – Australians Jared Taylor (Lezignan XIII, France) and John Wilson (Dragons) and Jean-Philippe Baile (Dragons).

With just 30 days to go tomorrow until the Tournament starts, the French have got the jump on the remaining nine nations who will not name their final teams for another two weeks following the NRL and Super League grand finals.

The French team’s Australian coach, John Monie, will have the luxury of being able to get his full squad together next Monday for a five-day training camp in the French alps at Tignes before arriving in Australia on October 13 for a camp on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Sydney-based players in the Australian and New Zealand squads, whose teams have been eliminated from the NRL play-offs, have started training – with the Australians having a session at Parramatta today and the Kiwis training Monday and again this Friday.

While the Catalans Dragons, coached by former St George Illawarra assistant Mick Potter, fill 12 of the 23 spots in the French team named today, the other places are filled by two more Super League players, one English National League player and eight from the French domestic competition.

Two other Australians feature in the team along with rookies Taylor (ex Sharks) and Wilson (Tigers) - James Wynne (Lezignan), formerly Knights, and Justin Murphy (Catalans), formerly Bulldogs and Warriors. All four have lived and played in France for over three years therefore qualifying through the residency rule.

France have been drawn in Pool 2 with Fiji and Scotland; with Tonga, Samoa and Ireland in Pool 3; and Australia, England, NZ and Papua New Guinea in the “Super Pool”.

They will open their 2008 RLWC campaign against Scotland in Canberra on October 26 and will play Fiji in Wollongong on November 1. The French have not played in a World Cup final since their 20-2 loss to Australia at the SCG in 1968.

The 29-day 2008 RLWC tournament begins on October 25 with England and Papua New Guinea clashing in Townsville and ends with the already sold-out Final at Suncorp Stadium on November 22.

France Rugby League - 2008 World Cup Squad

ANSELME, Eric - Leeds Rhinos UK
BAILE, Jean-Philippe - Catalans Dragons UK
BORLIN, J. Christophe - St Gaudens, France
BOSC, Thomas - CatalansDragons UK
CARRASCO - Laurent Villeneuve RL, France
CASTY, Remi - Catalans Dragons UK
ELIMA, Olivier - Catalans Dragons UK
FAKIR, Jamal - Catalans Dragons UK
FELLOUS,Adel - Lezignan XIII, France
GRESEQUE, Maxime - Pia 13, France
GRIFFI, Mathieu - Catalans Dragons UK
GUISSET, Jerome - Catalans Dragons UK
MOLY, Christophe - Carcassonne XIII, France
MOUNIS, Gregory - Catalans Dragons UK
MURPHY, Justin - Catalans Dragons UK
PELO, Dimitri - Catalans Dragons UK
PLANAS, Sebastien - Toulouse Olympique, France
RAGUIN, Sebastien - Catalans Dragons UK
RINALDI, Julien - Harlequins London, UK
SADAOUI, Teddy - Carcassonne XIII, France
TAYLOR, Jared - Lezignan XIII, France
WILSON, John - Catalans Dragons UK
WYNNE, James - Lezignan XIII, France

September 24 - 2008