The 1994 French rugby league Oceania tour was a three test tour by the

France national rugby league team The France national rugby league team represent France in international rugby league matches. They are referred to as ''les Chanticleers'' or less commonly as ''les Tricolores''. The team is run under the auspices of the Fédération Français ...

. The French team played single tests against

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, Australia and Fiji, losing all three games.

Team

The French were coached by

Jean-Christophe Vergeynst ''Jean-Christophe'' (1904‒1912) is the novel in 10 volumes by Romain Rolland for which he received the Prix Femina in 1905 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915. It was translated into English by Gilbert Cannan. The first four volumes ar ...

and captained by veteran halfback

Patrick Entat Patrick Entat (born ) is a French rugby league footballer who represented France national rugby league team, France at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup, 1995 World Cup. Playing career From the Sporting Olympique Avignon club in France, Entat mad ...

. * Patrick Acroue *

Theo Anast Theo Anast (born 1966) is a France former international rugby league footballer who played for the Canterbury Bulldogs in the Australian New South Wales Rugby League premiership and St Gaudens in the French Elite Championship. Anast represented ...

* Ezzedine Attia * Cyril Baudouin *

Pascal Bomati Pascal Bomati (born 13 October 1973 in Perpignan), is a French former professional rugby league and rugby union footballer. He has played rugby league for France. Pascal Bomati began playing rugby league at with XIII Catalan, then with Paris Sain ...

Pierre Chamorin Pierre Chamorin is a French former professional rugby league footballer who represented France at the 1995 World Cup. Playing career Chamorin started his career for AS Saint-Estève, with which he won several French Championship and Lord Derby ...

David Despin David Despin is a French coach and former rugby league footballer who represented France national rugby league team, France at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup, 1995 and 2000 Rugby League World Cup, 2000 World Cups. Playing career Despin played ...

* Franck Esponda *

David Fraisse David Fraisse (born Saint-Vallier, on 20 December 1966), also known by the nickname of "Frezzy", is a French rugby union coach and former rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played representative rugby league for Franc ...

* Jean Frison *

Jean-Marc Garcia Jean-Marc Garcia is a French rugby league footballer who represented France in the 1995 and 2000 World Cups. Playing career Garcia played for AS Saint Estève in the French Rugby League Championship. He was first selected for France in 1991 an ...

Charles Giorgi Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

* Christophe Grandjean * Georges Grandjean * Bernard Llong *

Frantz Martial Frantz may refer to: * Frantz (given name), a masculine given name (and list of people with the given name) * Frantz (surname), a surname (and list of people with the surname) * Frantz (Coppélia), Frantz (''Coppélia''), a character in ''Coppélia' ...

Christophe Martinez Christophe may refer to: People * Christophe (given name), list of people with this name * Christophe (singer) (1945–2020), French singer * Cristophe (hairstylist) (born 1958), Belgian hairstylist * Georges Colomb (1856–1945), French comic str ...

Claude Sirvent Claude Sirvent (born in Foix, on 6 February 1971) is a French rugby league footballer who represented France at the 2000 World Cup. Sirvent played in thirty two tests for France between 1992 and 2004 and also played for the Saint-Gaudens Bears ...

Stephane Tena Stephane may refer to: * Stéphane, a French given name * Stephane (Ancient Greece) A stephane (''ancient Greek'' στέφανος, from ''στέφω'' (stéphō, “I encircle”), '' Lat.'' Stephanus = wreath, decorative wreath worn on the head ...

Patrick Torreilles Patrick Torreilles is a French rugby league footballer who represented France at the 1995 World Cup. Playing career Torreilles played 19 tests for France between 1991 and 1997, including at the 1995 World Cup and the 1996 European Championshi ...

Thierry Valero Thierry is a French male given name, derived from the Germanic "Theodoric". It is the cognate of German "Dietrich" and " Dieter", English Terry, Derek and Derrick, and of various forms in other European languages. It is also a surname. People ...

Jean-Marc Vincent Jean-Marc is a French masculine given name. It may refer to: * Jean-Marc Adjovi-Bocco (born 1963), Beninese former football player * Jean-Marc Ayrault (born 1950), French politician * Jean-Marc Barr (born 1960), French-American film actor and dir ...

Papua New Guinea vs France

This would be Papua New Guinea's 5th test win in their 34th test (and their second win over France) since gaining test match status in 1975.

Australia vs France

For the Australian's,

Brett Mullins Brett Mullins (born 21 January 1972) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, and early 2000s. A New South Wales State of Origin and Australian international representative back, he played his club ...

David Fairleigh David Fairleigh (born 1 September 1970 in Wyoming, New South Wales) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and current assistant coach for the North Queensland Cowboys in the National Rugby League (NRL). An Australian inte ...

Tim Brasher Timothy Brasher is an Australian former rugby league footballer who primarily played as a in the 1990s and 2000s. He began his career with the Balmain Tigers, where he played the majority of his career. He then moved to the South Sydney Rabbit ...

, Paul McGregor and

Mark Hohn Mark Hohn (; born 29 January 1964) is an Australian former rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A front-rower, he represented Queensland in the State of Origin on nine occasions and played one Test for Australia as a res ...

all made their test debut, though Brasher had been Australia's fullback in the

1992 World Cup Final Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

at the famous

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

(at the time, tests and

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

games were counted separately in a players records). Although the name had been used for 86 years, this was the first test other than during a

Kangaroo Tour Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France, tours to New Zealand and the one-off tour to Papua New Guinea (1991). The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours to ...

where the Australian team was officially called The Kangaroos. In the French team's first test in Australia since 1990 and in what would prove to be Australian captain Mal Meninga's final test in Australia after announcing that he would retire at the end of 1994, the Australian Kangaroos racked up a record winning margin in the first ever test match at

Parramatta Stadium Parramatta Stadium was a sports stadium in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia, 23 kilometres west of Sydney's central business district. The stadium was the home ground of several western Sydney-based sports teams, at the time of closure ...

(and the first test in Sydney played at a suburban ground rather than a major venue) by defeating the hapless French 58–0. The scoreline could well have been higher (as much as 72–0) had Meninga (5/10) and Tim Brasher (0/2) been more accurate with their goal kicking. Following the disaster of France's 1981 Australasian tour where the standard of the French teams play had dropped alarmingly resulting in poor attendances for the tests at

Lang Park Lang Park, also known as Brisbane Football Stadium, by the sponsored name Suncorp Stadium, and nicknamed: 'The Cauldron', is a multi-purpose stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Milton. The current facility co ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

and the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and association fo ...

, the

Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL), formerly the Australian Rugby Football League known as the Australian Rugby League is an Australian rugby league football competition operator. It was founded in 1986 as the Australian Rugby Footbal ...

had ruled that until they improved their game, the Australian team would no longer play tests against the French in the two capital cities. The 1990 test, France's first in Australia since 1981 (following the cancelled 1987 tour) had been played on a freezing night in the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

country town of

Parkes Parkes may refer to: * Sir Henry Parkes (1815–1896), Australian politician, one of the earliest and most prominent advocates for Australian federation Named for Henry Parkes * Parkes, New South Wales, a regional town * Parkes Observatory, a radi ...

in front of a capacity crowd of 12,384 fans at the

Pioneer Oval Pioneer Oval is located in the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian c ...

. The attendance for that game, and that it was Mal Meninga's last test match in Australia, saw the ARL relax their stance and allow the game to be played in Sydney. Despite the French team not being regarded as a top line international team any more (this was France's 11th loss in a row in all tests since 1992 and their 10th loss in a row to Australia since 1981), the game was played in front of a ground record attendance of 27,318 which as would remain the record attendance for the venue until it was demolished in 2017. This was also the highest attendance for an Australia vs France test since 54,290 attended the 1968 World Cup Final at the Sydney Cricket Ground. This was the only rugby league test match played in Australia during 1994. At the end of the year the Australian's would embark on their successful

1994 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and France The 1994 Kangaroo Tour was the 18th and last Kangaroo Tour played in the conventional format, where the Australia national rugby league team (known as the XXXX Kangaroos due to sponsorship reasons) played a number of matches against British and Fre ...

during which they again defeated France 74–0 in

Béziers Béziers (; oc, Besièrs) is a subprefecture of the Hérault department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Every August Béziers hosts the famous ''Feria de Béziers'', which is centred on bullfighting. A million visitors are attra ...

. At the time the 74–0 score was a world record test match victory eclipsing the 58–0 win here in Sydney. Of this test team, only reserve forward Mark Hohn was not selected to the 1994 Kangaroo Tour. France would not play another test against Australia until 2004 while they would not play again in Australia until the

2008 Rugby League World Cup The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since its inauguration in 1954, and the first since the 2000 tournament. The tournament was held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final b ...

Fiji vs France

In what was Fiji's first official rugby league test match, they defeated the French team 20–12 at the

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

in Fiji's capital city of

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Di ...

Aftermath

The French team were in the grip of a 22 match losing streak (which included two drawn tests), not having won a test since defeating Papua New Guinea 28–14 in

Carcassonne Carcassonne (, also , , ; ; la, Carcaso) is a French fortified city in the department of Aude, in the region of Occitanie. It is the prefecture of the department. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the plain of the ...

on 24 November 1991. They would not win another rugby league test match until defeating

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

30–17 in

Arles Arles (, , ; oc, label=Provençal, Arle ; Classical la, Arelate) is a coastal city and commune in the South of France, a subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, in the former province ...

on 6 December 1997.France national rugby league team results at Rugby League Project
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References

{{1994 in rugby league France national rugby league team tours Rugby league tours of Papua New Guinea Rugby league tours of Australia Australia–France sports relations Fiji–France sports relations France–Papua New Guinea sports relations Rugby league tour of Oceania French rugby league tour of Oceania

Fra A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the o ...