#French Rugby League

Rugby League's men's World Cup kicks off on Saturday when England take on Samoa in Newcastle. It's the 16th iteration of a tournament first played in France in 1954. But, if 10 years previously, you'd asked any French player taking part in that inaugural competition whether they'd ever foresee playing a World Cup on home soil they'd have laughed…

At some point around 5.45pm on November 19, a trophy bearing the name of Paul Barrière will be lifted high into the floodlit Manchester sky. Barrière, a modest man who at a crucial point in his life depended on secrecy for survival, wouldn't have been happy. The man after whom the Rugby League World Cup is named insisted, during his lifetime, that…