Former Catalans coach and current French boss Laurent Frayssinous has named a 27-man French squad ahead of France’s clash wiuth Wales on 19th June in Albi as preperation for the World Cup.
Of the 27 named, 25 ply their trade in either Super League or the Championship with two British based players included. Those two players are Morgan Escare of Salford Red Devils and Louis Jouffret of Halifax Panthers.
Then the rest are mostly Catalans and Toulouse players with no place for arguably France’s best player and two-time Super League Champion Theo Fages of Huddersfield due to injury. Interestingly, there is no place for Mark Kheirallah one of France’s biggest stars and a highly sought after fullback.
Catalans’ contingent includes Julian Bousquet, Alrix Da Costa, Jordan Dezaria, Ben Garcia, Mickael Goudemand, Ben Jullien, Matthieu Laguerre, Corentin Le Cam, Arthur Mourgue, Arthur Romano, Cesar Rouge, Paul Seguier and the prolific Fouad Yaha.
Toulouse will be represented by Maxime Stefani, Gadwin Springer, Justin Sangare, Maxime Puech, Eloi Pelissier, Romain Navarrete, Anthony Marion, Paul Macron, Mathieu Jussaume and Ilias Bergal.
The squad is completed by two Elite One Championship players in Vincent Albert of Carcassonne and Albi’s own Baptiste Fabre.
The 27-man squad will be trimmed to a 20-man squad the week of the game and will see France prepare for the World Cup against Wales who will be led by John Kear who has been recently let go of by Bradford and is rumoured to be in contention for the Widnes job a position Frayssinous himself reportedly applied for adding more meat to the bones of this international clash.
