Two French rugby league sides have made history in recent weeks, as competitions usually dominated by teams from the north of England have been given a dose of continental flair. 

Catalans Dragons and Toulouse Olympique topping Super League and the Championship respectively marked a momentous season in which French teams won these leagues for the first time. 

That they did so at the same time should be a real boost for the sport in one of its historic hotbeds in the south of France.

Both sides can still take things a step further this season, though, and Catalans coach Steve McNamara wants to finish the job his team have started by lifting the Super League trophy in next Saturday’s Grand Final at Old Trafford.

In topping the table at the end of the regular season, Catalans became the first non-English club to win the Supporters’ Shield, adding another trophy to their cabinet after their Challenge Cup triumph in 2018.

When Catalans defeated Hull KR 28-10 in Thursday’s semi-final, reaching the Grand Final for the first time in their history, it was only four years to the day since their Super League status was in the balance.

On September 30 2017, they faced Leigh Centurions in the fixture dubbed the Million Pound Game to determine which of the two sides would play Super League rugby in the subsequent season, and who would be playing in the second-tier Championship.

Catalans won that game, played in Leigh, 26-10 before McNamara joined ahead of the 2018 campaign. They have been on a steady upward trajectory ever since.

Just a year on from that brush with relegation, Catalans were lifting the trophy of rugby league’s most historic and prestigious cup competition, the Challenge Cup, defeating Warrington 20-14 in the Wembley final.

Last time out, in 2020, they finished fourth in the league table but were knocked out in the playoff semi-finals, but this season they have been undoubtedly the standout team during the regular season.

They have one more hurdle to clear in order to make more history, but it will be the biggest test yet in what is always a tense one-off game at Old Trafford.

“We’ve got to go there and win it now,” said McNamara after the Hull KR match. “It’s massive, it’s an achievement, but it’s only historic if you go there and win it.

“There was no mass celebration at the end of the game here at the Brutus [Catalans home stadium, Gilbert Brutus]. 

“The players understand that if we are going to do something historic, we have to do it next week in Manchester.”

Based in the French Catalonian city of Perpignan, the Dragons joined Super League in 2006. They were exempt from relegation for three seasons, but by 2008 they were finishing third in the table anyway, and were also runners up in the 2007 Challenge Cup.

This part of France has always been one of the few rugby league hotbeds outside the east of Australia and the north of England, so the success of teams from this region and their involvement in Super League is good for the game.

Rugby league in France has always been recovering from a ban on the sport by the Vichy government in the early 1940s. 

Vichy France were Nazi allies who saw rugby league as a socialist sport and as a result transferred all the funds, players and facilities to rugby union.

Catalans’ success is a watershed moment in the road to recovery, and there is also the possibility they will be joined in the top tier by another French outfit, Championship side Toulouse Olympique.

Toulouse won all 13 of the regular season games they were able to play this season, topping the table on the points percentage system being used while team travel and fixtures are still affected by Covid.

Their recent trajectory has been similar to that of Catalans but on a lower level. Having been promoted from League 1 in 2016, they won the Championship Shield — a post-season competition for the league’s bottom eight clubs — in 2017, finished third in 2018 and second in 2019.

The 2020 season was abandoned with Toulouse unbeaten but they picked up where they left off, storming to the league title this season, becoming the first French side to win the Championship Leaders Shield.

Today Toulouse welcome Batley Bulldogs to the Stade Ernest-Wallon in a semi-final that determines who gets the chance to face one of Featherstone or Halifax in the 2021 Million Pound Game, and who is promoted to Super League.

A second French club in the top flight would be a boost for the game in the northern hemisphere.

Building on existing rugby league hotbeds is as important as branching out to areas such as the United States and Canada — as was attempted with the Toronto Wolfpack who had to withdraw from the league last year.

Areas such as Lancashire and Yorkshire are already well represented at the highest level, but development and investment in other traditional rugby league regions such as Cumbria in Britain, and France in Europe, should be encouraged.

The south of France is particularly important as it can be seen as a symbol of the struggles the sport has faced against right-wing governments and the governing bodies of rugby union which have, in some cases, attempted to suppress their league cousin.

The fact Catalans and Toulouse are in this position is a sign of progress and offers exciting variation in a sport that can sometimes feel isolated to specific areas of England and Australia.

Even if Catalans and Toulouse do not achieve their respective goals of a Grand Final win and promotion, their relative success and the history they have already made is a good sign for the future of the sport, and should be built upon.