Super League 2023: Ben Garcia on why Catalans Dragons are Catalans are ‘the engine of rugby league in France’ | Rugby League News

Dragons and France captain Ben Garcia knows as well as anyone why success for the club in the Super League benefits the game in the country; Catalans begin against Wakefield Trinity on Friday; watch 66 matches in the 2023 Super League season live on Sky Sports

Catalans’ Ben Garcia is captain for both club and country

Few players have been at the forefront of the revival of French rugby league more than Ben Garcia.

Captain of both Catalans Dragons in the Super League and the France national team at last year’s Rugby League World Cup, the back-row forward is undoubtedly one of the 13-man codes icons in his homeland.

Garcia has been an integral part of the Dragons’ rise to becoming regular contenders for honours in Super League too, and the 29-year-old knows as well as anyone what it means for the health of the game in the country for that to remain the case – particular with it hosting the next World Cup in two years’ time.

“Catalans are flying the flag of the sport in France, and if Catalans Dragons are going well and developing some players, it will hopefully be some success for the French team at the World Cup, so we need to keep going,” Garcia told Sky Sports.

“It was a good experience last year [with France at the World Cup] and we had a pretty young squad. We knew that, but we are building for the 2025 World Cup in France.

“It was a good experience for some of the young players to play in some big games at this tournament, and it was positive.”

What excites Garcia the most is those youngsters who are starting to emerge through the system at Catalans to play alongside their overseas contingent which has been strengthened this year by the signings of Tonga international Sio Siua Taukieaho and Adam Keighran from NRL side Sydney Roosters, and winger Tom Johnstone and forward Manu Ma’u from Wakefield Trinity and Hull FC respectively.

Garcia led France at last year’s Rugby League World Cup

But in amongst those and star names like England captain Sam Tomkins and former New South Wales State of Origin stand-off Mitchell Pearce are plenty of homegrown talents. Indeed, a look through the Dragons’ squad list sees 10 French players among Nos 1 to 17 alone.

Exciting backs Arthur Mourgue and Matthieu Laguerre are two in particular who have lit up Super League since emerging in recent seasons and Garcia, whose junior career took him from Avignon to the youth set-up at NRL side Brisbane Broncos before signing for Catalans in June 2013, believes there is plenty more French talent waiting to break through.

“We’ll prove it even more this year,” Garcia said. “We have a new bunch of young players who have trained with us in pre-season and I’m sure a few of them will play this year.

“It’s a long process from the club, but at the end of the day we’ve got Arthur Mourgue, Matthieu Laguerre, and Jordan Dezaria who all play in Super League.

Arthur Mourgue is one of the most exciting French players to have come through the Catalans system

“It’s [Catalans] like the engine of rugby league in France…It’s pretty massive.”

Since returning to the Dragons midway through the 2016 season after six months in Australia with Penrith Panthers, Garcia has been on the field for the greatest moments in the club’s two-decade existence.

He was part of the side which stunned Warrington Wolves to lift the Challenge Cup at Wembley in 2018, becoming the first overseas team to lift the iconic trophy just a season after nearly being relegated from Super League, and then skippered them in the historic 2021 campaign.

Last year did not see the Dragons quite reach the heights of the previous season when they won the League Leaders’ Shield and reached the Grand Final for the first time, finishing fourth and then going down 20-10 at home to eventual runners-up Leeds Rhinos in the first round of the play-offs.

Garcia takes on the Leeds defence in last year’s play-off defeat

Nevertheless, Garcia – whose end of the year was disrupted by a gruesome ear injury – took plenty of positives from 2022 and is eyeing another top-four finish as a minimum this time around, with the Dragons kicking their season off away to Wakefield on Friday, February 17 (kick-off 7.30pm).

“It was a good season,” Garcia said. “We made the play-offs and there was a bit of disappointment at the end of the year with the quarter-final at home, which was a loss.

“But I think we’ve found the consistency we missed in the last few years for the past three, and we made the play-offs which is most important thing for the club.

“We just need to work hard. We have some young players coming through who will bring some freshness, but the consistency home and away is the most important.”

The new Super League season starts on Thursday, February 16 as Warrington Wolves host Leeds Rhinos. Watch 66 live matches, including Magic Weekend, the play-offs and the Grand Final, on Sky Sports in 2023 and stream on NOW TV.