‘Brother versus brother’: Super League revels in first all-French derby

Almost exactly 27 years to the day since the former chief executive of the Rugby Football League, Maurice Lindsay, unveiled the grand plans for the advent of Super League and the proposed continental expansion which came with it, few should have afforded themselves a smile more than Lindsay here as history was made, with two French sides facing one another in the competition for the first time.

The original plans for the first Super League season in 1996 included two French teams, Toulouse and Paris. That ultimately never materialised, with Toulouse not making it to the start line and Paris Saint-Germain lasting barely a couple of seasons. But here, the vision and belief so many traditionalists laughed at for years, the notion that two French teams could stand side by side in the elite competition, finally came to fruition as Catalans hosted Toulouse: and it was a moment for all of rugby league, not just those in France, to savour.

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“This is brother versus brother,” the Catalans Dragons chief executive, Alex Chan, admits. “We have to work together and not discredit each other as clubs. If we don’t look after Toulouse and they don’t work with us, we won’t grow in France. The vision was laid out all those years ago. They called the competition Super League Europe and now, it truly is a European competition.” The result here was almost secondary to the occasion, with the Dragons edging a hard-fought contest 18-10.

These are fascinating times for rugby league across the Channel. Toulouse’s promotion to Super League for the first time comes not only in a World Cup year, but just three years out from the next hosting of the tournament, which