The Elite 1 league, which returns this weekend after its festive break, is packed with former NRL and Super League stars
Carcassonne and Villeneuve players walk off the field after a match.ow’s this for a star-studded bill: New Zealand centre and 2020 NRL Grand Finalist Dean Whare; former North Queensland, Penrith and Papua New Guinea hooker James Segeyaro;2018 winner Morgan Escaré; former Queensland half-back Corey Norman; and NRL and Super League winner Joseph Paulo. All of them have signed for Elite 1 clubs in France and should be in action when the league returns on Saturday.
Maloney, now 36, is having a huge impact for Lézignan, where he’s been joined by former Catalans and France captain Jason Baitieri and now Norman. These illustrious new recruits are all in their 30s; former Leeds and Hull KR forward turned Saint-Gaudens player-coach Mitch Garbutt is 33, his old Toulouse colleague Paulo had his 35th birthday this week, and Segeyaro is 32 – but most have at least a couple of years of part-time rugby left in them.
These famous players are not earning the money they did in Super League but, with crowds around the 1,000 mark at most Elite 1 games, who is subsidising their wages? The usual suspects – wealthy owners and sponsors – plus generous state benefits and the traditional source of finance for French clubs: local government. “Money is at the root of it all,” says local sports journalistof the renaissance. “Elite 1 seems to be awash with it.
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