French national rugby league team
| Nickname (s) | Les Chanticleers , Les Tricolores | ||
| Association | Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII | ||
| Trainer |
 Richard Agar
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| captain | Olivier Elima | ||
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Most international matches for Puig Aubert (46) |
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Most points scored Puig Aubert (361) |
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Most attempts scored Raymond Contrastin (25) |
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First international match 21:32 England (April 15, 1934) |
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Biggest win 120-0 Serbia (October 22, 2003)  |
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Biggest defeat 4:84 England (October 24, 2015) |
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World Championship participations: 12 Best results: Vice World Champion 1954, 1968 |
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The French national rugby league team represents France internationally in the sport of rugby league . The team has so far participated in all rugby league world championships and has long been one of the strongest national teams in the world. The greatest successes were two vice world championships in 1954 and 1968.
history
Rugby League established itself relatively late in France , it wasn't until 1934 that the national team played their first game, which was lost in Paris at 21:32 against England . After the Second World War , the French rose to become an international force in the rugby league and were able to stand up to the leading nations of Great Britain and Australia at times . The first Rugby League World Cup took place in France in 1954, and the domestic team made it to the final after victories over Australia and New Zealand , where they were defeated by the British by 12:16. To this day, this was the last World Cup final that took place without the kangaroos .
After two fourth places in 1957 and 1960 , France moved into the final again in 1968 , but defeated Australia clearly with 2:20 in Sydney . Two third places in 1970 and 1972 were the last notable successes of the French at world championships, and since then the team has been fighting against steady decline. The 1995 tournament was particularly embarrassing when France was unable to win a game despite a considerably larger field of participants and was eliminated in the preliminary round. At the last World Cup in 2013 , the team failed in the quarter-finals to England .