'The Rise, Fall and Rise of French Rugby League'

On one particularly glorious afternoon of rugby, the French national team conquered opponents from the British Isles to be crowned Champions of Europe.  Yet, the year was not 2025, and the code of rugby was not Union; the year was 1939, and the code was Rugby League.A love of rugby is surely in the blood of any Gallic sports fan, but it may come as a surprise to those who follow France in the Six Nations Championship that, for a brieftime in the late 1930s, it seemed as though League might well supplant Union in the affections of the French nation as their national team rose to the pinnacle of theEuropean game.  However, this success would be short-lived, as French Rugby League would be left a casualty of the shifting political grounds on a war-torn continent.  Following on from Chris’s exploration of why Rugby Union gained predominance over the alternate code in Wales, Nathan narrates the story of 'The Rise, Fall and Riseagain of French Rugby League' in the inter-war period.  At a moment when professionalism clashed with amateurism, and socialism clashed with fascism, the civil war within French rugby created animosity which has never truly disappearedand captured a moment in time when sport and politics connected in a way that could never have been predicted.