Paris Saint-Germain RL
Founded	1995
Discontinued	1997
Colours	Blue, red and white
Stadium	Stade Charlety (Capacity 20,000)

Paris Saint Germain were a rugby league club based in the suburbs of Paris, France who competed for the first two seasons of the Super League. Indeed, they played in the first ever Super League game in Paris in 1996 against the Sheffield Eagles.

Contents 1 Foundation 2 Aftermath 3 Player List 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Foundation

The club was created by former rugby union coach Jacques Fouroux as a rugby league section of the successful Paris Saint Germain F.C.^[1] in an attempt to give the new Super League a Continental European dimension. The assumption was that the larger population of the capital city and its transport links and accessibility for English supporters would give a French franchise the best chance of success.

John Kear was head coach with Dave Ellis his assistant. The first game, on March 29th 1996 in the Charlety stadium, attracted a crowd of 17,873 and the team beat Sheffield Eagles 30-24 but after a few weeks the attendances tailed off as the defeats mounted. In addition, the team was composed of a large number of imported players, with the club exempt from the restrictions placed on English heartland clubs.

The club finished 11th in the first season, winning only three and drawing one, and achieved the same position in Super League II, albeit this time with six wins. Their coach, Peter Mulholland who replaced John Kear was sacked part-way through the season [1]. Andy Goodway took over as head coach.[2] At this stage the attendances were low and the cost of paying players and travel to England meant the club was losing money.

At the end of the 1997 season the club was dissolved and the experiment was generally considered to be a failure.

[edit] Aftermath

French rugby league regrouped around its core clubs in the south and began to post good results in the Challenge Cup culminating in a semi-final appearance for Toulouse Olympique in 2005. During the competition they beat Widnes Vikings, then a Super League club.

In 2006 (Super League XI) Catalans Dragons joined Super League ending the 8 year wilderness period for France since the demise of the Paris club.

[edit] Player List

Darren Adams Jerome Azema Frederic Banquet Troy Bellamy Phillip "Phil" Bergman Deon Bird Vea Bloomfield Pascal Bomati John Boslem Hadji Boudebza Todd Brown Justin Bryant Didier Cabestany Laurent Cambres Arnaud Cervello Pierre Chamorin Alexandre Couttet Nicolas Couttet

David Despin Fabien Devecchi James Durkin Jason Eade Abderazak El Khalouki Patrick Entat Paul Evans Jonathan Griffiths Anthony Hancock Michael Hogue Nicholas "Nick" Hyde Pascal Jampy Gregory Kacala Jason Keough Mark Lane David Lomax Laurent Lucchese Shaun Mahoney Jason Martin Craig Menkins Wilfried Moulinec

Matthew "Matt" O'Connor David O'Donnell Jamie Olejnik Jules Parry Regis Pastre-Courtine Jacques Pech Adam Peters Michal Piscunov Anthony "Tony" Priddle Jean-Luc Ramandou Philippe Ricard Jeremy Robinson Ian Russell Jason Sands Phillip "Phil" Shead Wayne Sing Daniel "Danny" Smith Romain Sort

Romain Taylor Frederic Teixido Patrick Torreilles Ian Turner Gregory Tutard Eric Van Brussell Eric Vergniol Anthony "Tony" Wall George Wilson Vincent Wulf Bagdad Yaha Ronel Zenon

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Paris Saint-Germain at catalans.rlfans.com
• Paris Saint-Germain at rugbyeagueproject.org

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