France U19s to tour Australia, New Zealand

Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII will send an U19s team to Australia and New Zealand at the end of the season in a bid to prepare players for the 2026 World Cup.

France finished runners-up to England at the recent U19s European Championships and FFRXIII president Dominique Baloup said the Southern Hemisphere tour would be another step in the education of the nation's best young talent.

Baloup said the experience gained would be beneficial for developing the depth of the French team, which is aiming to qualify for RLWC2026 in Australia and Papua New Guinea by winning the upcoming European RLWCQ tournament in France.

"The tour of Australia of our U19s is fully in line with the work undertaken for our young people to enable them to identify the paths to high performance and facilitate their commitment by knowing the options that may be offered to them," Baloup said.

"For the Federation, in view of the next world and European events, this is a major issue, which also corresponds to the expectations of the State in terms of sports policy.

"We have seen with the Olympics that the federations, which are certainly Olympic, and which have undertaken this in-depth work, I am thinking in particular of the French Basketball Federation, have obtained more than convincing results, which, according to the President of the Republic, will strengthen the State's support for this emergence of athletes at the very highest international level. Rugby league cannot escape this rule.

"Our U19s will therefore go to Australia next autumn, full of ambition and with a significant experience built this year by a victory against the English Academy in Warrington and the great disappointment caused by the defeat in the final of the European Championship in Belgrade.

"Here again, we must improve to extend the extremely promising results obtained in the U17s, both in terms of content and form, ideally up to the seniors."

The tour will involve no less than three matches and intense training sessions for the French U19s.

"This tour will allow us to finalise the learning acquired over several years," France U19s team manager Florian Chautard said.

"It will also allow us to get up close and personal with professionalism in our sport, the highest level in the world in the discipline. Some might have the click that we often expect. A complete project for these young people who want to make their dream come true."