Robinson on board, but can he fire French to victory?

France could be forgiven for being in two minds for ahead of this World Cup. They will have the best squad that they have been able to field in a long time, made up entirely of Super League players – and some very good ones at that – but will also be conscious that this tournament is not necessarily the one that matters.

With the tournament set to return to its spiritual home in 2025, les Chanticleers could be forgiven for prioritising the big one and going for youth. No such thing, however.

France have underperformed at World Cups for a long time and will see this year’s edition as a major opportunity to make an impact now.

The trouble is, of course, that they’re in a group with England, the hosts, and Samoa, the dark horses. Sacre bleu indeed.

With coach Laurent Frayssinous and his Director of Rugby, some bloke called Trent Robinson, they won’t struggle for nous, and their playing talent is battle-hardened.

The Catalans Dragons made the Super League Grand Final last year and Toulouse Olympique joined them in the top flight for 2022, giving France two clubs’ worth of native players to pick from, plus a few scattered over the water in England.

Though they will be the only team not to field an NRL player, don’t go around thinking they’ll be making up the numbers. Actually: Samisoni Langi, once of the Roosters, is naturalised French now and is in.

France’s midseason win over Wales saw 12 Dragons and four Olympians, so let’s get through them first.

The captain, Ben Garcia has nearly 200 games of Super League in him, Fouad Yaha is the Catalans’ all-time top tryscorer on while Ben Jullien and Mickaël Goudemand are firmly in club legend status now in Perpignan.

There’s younger guys like Alrix da Costa, Arthur Romano, Paul Seguier, Cesar Rouge and Matthieu Laguerre too.

Corentin Le Cam is a big in, and not just because he’ll be the tallest player at the World Cup, standing well over 2m, and he might be taller than Jordan Dezaria, but he might not be ‘bigger’ in the traditional sense of the word.

Watch out, too, for Arthur Morgue. He is kept out of the No.1 jersey at the Dragons by starting England fullback Sam Tomkins, but will likely take it for France. He’s a gun.

From the Toulouse side, you get Eloi Pelissier, the obligatory French hooker with his socks round his ankles. They’ve had one per team since about 1930.

Anthony Marion and Paul Marcon turned out against the Welsh and have been playing for TO XIII every week, so are ins for the World Cup. Maxime Stefani, Maxime Puech and Lambert Belmas play too. The trio of Maximes is completed by Maxime Puech, who was at Toulouse but is now with Albi in Elite One.

From the UK-based squad, you get Morgan Escare of Salford, who injured himself against Wales but makes it back in time, Louis Jouffret of Halifax and Gadwin Springer of Featherstone.

The Wales game saw the French missing their two standout players: Theo Fages and Tony Gigot. On his day, Gigot is one of the most exciting players in the world, and that’s no understatement. His day is somewhat infrequent, but he does tend to arc up for the big occasions – when the Catalans won the Challenge Cup, he was man of the match.

Fages would be France’s best player, but is injured, as is Catalans legend Julien Bousquet.