France head coach Laurent Frayssinous suggested the growing gap between the NRL and Super League was a huge factor in Friday’s 78-4 defeat by Samoa at the Men’s Rugby League World Cup.
Melbourne storm winger Sua Fa’alogo came off the bench as a replacement for the injured Deine Mariner to score four of Samoa’s 14 tries in an emphatic Pool B-C victory in Parramatta.
Mariner had opened the scoring, with two tries for Benaiah Ioelu and one each for Jermaine McEwen, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Stephen Crichton, Shawn Blore, Chanel Harris-Tavita, Izack Tago and Francis Molo. France’s sole try came in the first half from Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet.
Frayssinous admitted his team were “all over the shop” in an opening 20 minutes where Samoa scored five times – with France not helped by head injuries to winger Leo Darrelatour and stand-off Cesar Rouge, although the latter was able to return after an assessment.
But, asked why France had fallen to an even heavier defeat than the 62-4 loss they suffered against Samoa in Warrington at the last World Cup four years ago, Frayssinous pointed to the level of NRL talent in the opposing ranks.
“I have a question for you,” Frayssinous said. “Do you think the NRL is far better now than four years ago? Then you have the answer.”
All but one of the Samoa squad are with clubs in the NRL, while France’s team is largely made up of Super League players, although they do have South Sydney Rabbitohs centre Latrell Siegwalt in their line-up.
“The NRL keeps growing and keeps getting better every year,” Frayssinous added. “Watching NRL every year, it’s at the top, at the top, at the top. A step up, step up, step up.
“Does that mean Super League isn’t? No. Super League is [getting] better every year, but not as fast as the NRL. The smartness, the skill the guys have under pressure, the touches, week in, week out, that’s something we need to improve in Super League, simple as that.”
Frayssinous made clear he would welcome the NRL’s proposed investment in Super League.
“Definitely,” he said. “What the NRL has done here is so good, what they bring to the game is great, so we want the NRL to do it the same in Europe.”
Fa’alogo’s performance as a replacement for Mariner – who will have a scan on a hamstring strain – demonstrated Samoa’s strength in depth, as their head coach Ben Gardiner acknowledged.
“We were planning for him [Fa’alogo] to play at some stage, and he just got on a bit earlier than he probably would have thought,” Gardiner said. “And to his credit, he went out and had a blinder.”
