Ten uninterrupted years in Super League seems a reasonable timescale on which to judge a club’s progress. Catalans Dragons celebrated their 10th birthday recently and are now not only looking like serious contenders for a place in the Grand Final at Old Trafford in October but are also one of the biggest earners in Super League.

As a major threat to our leading sides, it will be interesting to see how their relationship with English rugby league fans evolves. For many, the Dragons are their “second” club, the exotic team from the Med who should be embraced and encouraged… until they beat their team.

Being on British TV so often must be increasing their profile across the channel – next Saturday’s home game against Salford will be their fifth successive game to go out live on Sky – while having half a team of antipodean stars must be raising some interest down under. They even wore Super League’s classiest kit in the thrashing of Hull KR and their dogged win at St Helens last Thursday: all black with gold chevron and logos.

When Trent Robinson led them to the brink of glory, there were often 13 French players in the 17. That number has fallen considerably this season but was back up to nine last week, including teenage hooker Alrix Da Costa from Limoux Grizzlies making his debut.

Perpignan has always attracted elite performers but to have so many high profile imports at one time meant this season was make or break for coach Laurent Frayssinous. This year’s recruits included three Kangaroos – Willie Mason, who came across as a somewhat wry wit on BBC’s Super League Show last week, the revitalised beast Dave Taylor and consistent Glenn Stewart – Papua New Guinea hooker Paul Aiton, Maori international Justin Horo and 34-year-old Ireland wing Pat Richards.

Given the number of new signings, among whom low-profile recruit Jodie Broughton looks fine value for money, it was no wonder they made a rusty start but now they have gelled, look relentless in defence and devastating in attack. Todd Carney – superb in his post-match analysis on Sky’s big screen, making a mockery of rugby league being a simple game – and Richie Myler have formed a halfback pairing to match any in the league.

Using a private jet to get in and out of England for away games seems to have cured their travel sickness and they have the long hot summer to come, when they usually devour wilting Brits in their own back yard. Brutal at the Brutus.

English fans of the Dragons should get a copy of a new book covering their first 10 years in great details. Continental Lights by Gordon Derbyshire is a quirky homage to Catalonian XIII. Among the many nuggets I discovered were the revelations that the opposing full-backs on their opening night win over Wigan in 2006 were Laurent Frayssinous and a young Chris Ashton (see below) while Kevin Brown and Sean O’Loughlin were both in the Wigan side; and little Aussie winger Justin Murphy started life in France with the Dragons’ predecessors UTC in the Elite 1 comp before becoming Super League’s top try-scorer in 2006.

The Dragons have done more than most Super League clubs to spread the word, taking games to the seaside, to Barcelona and other cities in the region. They have been rewarded. Derbyshire reports there are now 18 supporters club branches (penyas) from up in the Aude to down by the Spanish border. Most bizarre for me was the discovery that Eloi Pelissier is from the mountain village club (St-Paul-de-Fenouillet) where my Dad’s cousin’s Algerian husband used to help out! C’est un petit monde.

Clubcall: Saracens

Yes, I know they’re not a rugby league club, but bear with me. I made a rare appearance at a rugby union match, lured by curiosity and cheap tickets to Wembley on Saturday for Saracens v Harlequins. I have links with both clubs: I chanted for Harlequins Rugby League for several years at The Stoop, and took rugby league to Saracens’ Bramley Road ground where my wife’s grandad played when there were fewer spectators than players. He would have been astounded to see 80,000 watching Saracens in a league fixture.

There was a Wigan flavour to a decent game: former Warriors winger Chris Ashton dived over for two tries, and Ben Botica and Owen Farrell kicked goals. Ben (son of prolific Wigan star Fran) is Quins’ stand-off while Farrell replaced Halifax RL fan Charlie Hodgson late on in the same role for the “home” side.

Apart having our pictures taken with the Offiah & Co statue, there were other points of interest to league fans: the explosive Billy Vunipola showed why he would make a devastating rugby league prop; and before almost every scrum a physio came on to treat a supposedly injured player. The game stopped for up to two minutes, water carriers and coaches descended, and the PA played music to fill the void. I don’t suppose the broadcasters were showing pre-planned adverts before every scrum were they? I have seen the future and we should be very afraid.

Foreign quota

Warrington coach Tony Smith recently declared: “We will end up being a feeder competition to the NRL if we keep up the small mindedness.” Too late Tony, we already are. That was underlined last week when the hugely respected Blake Solly announced he was leaving his post as Super League general manager to become CEO at South Sydney Rabbitohs. When I told my wife this, she questioned why going to a club was a bigger job than running a league. I admitted it just was, these days. A calm, welcoming, impressive young administrator, Solly will be greatly missed.

He was a believer in major events growing our game. Saturday was Saracens’ 13th game at Wembley in six years, and it is now an annual event. That allows them to promote it for months and with extremely cheap tickets – me, my mate Ola and his three sons got in for about £40 – insures huge crowds, most of whom seemed quite at home (presumably they go every year) and yet more interested in socialising than the match itself. The crowd, who were cleverly spread out to avoid the empty blocks that blight our Challenge Cup final, was four times the two clubs’ combined average home attendance. It makes financial sense: get a sponsor to hire Wembley for half a million quid, sell 80,000 tickets at a tenner and make a profit and raise your profile massively. Repeat next year.

The closest we get to this are England games in the capital. The latest will be announced on Friday when the Four Nations fixtures are confirmed, at last.

Goal-line drop-out

The full effect of the Easter programme has been most evident in the bizarre results since. I’ve done some research on rounds seven, eight and nine, the three games in 11 days or less that each club faced over Easter. Wigan used 22 players over the period, with 13 playing all three games and 16 playing both over the Easter weekend, even though reserve players as Gregson, Whiteworth and Higginson were all called into action. They followed it by losing 62-0 at Wakefield.

St Helens only used 19, with 14 playing all three. No wonder they needed a handful of players unknown to non-Saints fans by the time they went to Warrington, where they miraculously won, but were then well beaten by Catalans on Thursday.

Resurgent Wakefield used 22 but spread them out more, just 12 players involved in all three games. That has allowed them to keep up their winning run. Huddersfield used exactly the same numbers and lost all three, but had enough in the tank to nil title-chasers Warrington last Friday night.

Hull FC used 23 in total, with only ten playing all three. Interestingly, their three major imports – Frank Pritchard, Mark Minichiello and Mahe Fonua – were spared the Easter Monday game. They, too, have continued to look strong.

Which brings us to Hull KR. Injuries forced them to give everyone a game over Easter, using 25 players, only nine of whom were ever-present. Nineteen days after winning at Leeds, they were being humiliated at home by the mighty Oldham Roughyeds in the Challenge Cup on Saturday. There is definitely something fishy going on over there.

Fifth and last

Wigan may just get away with their annihilation at Wakefield last week as they went in disguise. Only half their first team played and those who did may as well not have done, and they did so wearing a fluorescent lime kit. Nothing about them said ‘Wigan RLFC’. Neither team looked like they should that day: Wakefield have chosen to wear their traditional colours only in away games and their normally alternate royal blue shirts at home, while Wigan abandoned their cherry and white hoops at Belle Vue for no obvious reason.

Another recent kit farce came in the Championship where Featherstone wore (navy) blue and white hooped shirts, white shorts and blue and white hooped socks against Halifax, who wore (royal) blue and white hooped shirts, white shorts and blue and white hooped socks! So we have clubs wearing change strips when they don’t need to, and not changing when they do. Genius!

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