![]() France was the driving force behind the establishment of the Rugby League World Cup following the war. Rugby league remained banned in schools and was limited to 200 professional players under this dubious arrangement.Īfter the war the French game was re-established and the French became one of rugby league's major powers. Although the ban on rugby league was lifted, it was prevented from using the word rugby in its title from 24 April 1949 until 26 June 1991, having to use the name Jeu à Treize ( Game of Thirteen). On 10 July 1947, a “gentleman's agreement” was signed between the Ligue Française de rugby à treize ( Paul Barrière as representative), the French republic and the French rugby union for division of the Ligue Française de rugby à treize in two parts: a Federation française de jeu à treize as the governing body of the amateur game and a Ligue de rugby à XIII as the governing body for the semi-professional game. The French national rugby league team in 1951 The federation was reinstated in September 1944, but the damage caused by the Vichy Government's actions proved to be long-lasting and rugby league struggled to regain its pre-war momentum. In addition, rugby league players were forced to switch to rugby union or other sports or quit sport altogether. The figure of assets stripped has been estimated at two million 1940 French francs, none of which was ever returned. All funds as well as grounds and equipment belonging to the French Rugby League Federation were confiscated and handed over to rugby union. Some of the French Rugby Union's senior administrators took advantage of their close relationship with the new regime to have rugby league outlawed as a "corrupter" of French youth. The Vichy Government under Philippe Pétain associated rugby league with the pre-war socialist government, the United Kingdom and General Charles de Gaulle. The invasion of France by Germany in May 1940 divided the country into Occupied France in the north and a southern pro-Nazi Vichy France, the latter of which roughly corresponded to the rugby-playing heartlands. In the same year, three leading rugby union clubs – Narbonne, Carcassonne and Brive – switched to rugby league. By 1939, the French league had 225 clubs and the national side beat England and Wales to take the 1938-39 European Championship, their first. Within five years, the number of rugby league clubs was approaching the number of rugby union clubs. With rugby league's acceptance of professionalism and spectator-friendly rules, the French viewed it as a modern and innovative game, and it grew quickly in popularity. With France's continued suspension from the Five Nations Championship preventing its players from participating in quality international competition, many began to consider the newly introduced 13-man code. The French Rugby League was formed on 6 April 1934. ![]() Then in 1934, Jean Galia took a French team that had never played rugby league to Yorkshire and Lancashire in England. An earlier exhibition match between the two teams had been attempted to be played in Paris during the 1921-22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain, but this had been blocked by the FFR. Following development work by both Harry Sunderland (on behalf of the Australian Rugby League) and the British Rugby Football League, the Australian and British Test teams played an exhibition game at Stade Pershing in Paris in late December 1933. The French rugby clubs remained aligned with the Home Nation unions when rugby split into Rugby Union and Northern Union (later renamed Rugby League) in 1895.Īllegations of professionalism and on-field violence in internationals led to France's suspension from the rugby union Five Nations Championship in 1931. It began to flourish quickly in the poorer, more rural south. Rugby football was introduced into France by the British in the early 1870s. See also: History of rugby league Introduction of the sport to WWII
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