 | |||
| Club information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Catalans Dragons XIII | ||
| Nickname | The Dragons | ||
| Short name | Catalans Dragons | ||
| Colours | White, Red and Gold | ||
| Founded | 2000; 26 years ago (2000) | ||
| Website | Official website | ||
| Current details | |||
| Ground |
| ||
| CEO | Sébastien Munoz | ||
| Chairman | Bernard Guasch | ||
| Coach | Joel Tomkins | ||
| Captain | Benjamin Garcia | ||
| Competition | Super League | ||
| 2025 season | 9th | ||
 Current season | |||
| Uniforms | |||
| |||
| Records | |||
| French Championships | 1 (2004–05) | ||
| British Championships | 0 | ||
| League Leaders' Shields | 1 (2021) | ||
| Challenge Cups | 1 (2018) | ||
| Other honours | 6 | ||
TheCatalans Dragons (French:Dragons Catalans,Catalan:Dracs Catalans) are a professionalrugby league club fromPerpignan,Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. Despite being based in France, the club competes inSuper League, the top tier of theBritish rugby league.
Formed after the merger ofXIII Catalan andAS Saint-Estève, they have won oneFrench Championship and twoLord Derby Cups. In Britain they have never won theLeague Championship but have won theChallenge Cup once.
Catalans play home games atStade Gilbert Brutus. Their traditional home colours are white red and gold.
The club was founded in 2000 after the merger of two teams in the area ofPerpignan,XIII Catalan andAS Saint-Estève. The merged team took the name Union Treiziste Catalane, often abbreviated to UTC.
XIII Catalan were founded in 1935 and thus were founding members of theFrench Championship. During their run, they won 11 French Championships and 11Lord Derby Cups.AS Saint-Estève were founded in 1965. They won six championships and four Lord Derby Cups. There were two other clubs in the twelve-team competition in Pyrénées-Orientales:Pia XIII and Saint-Cyprien. In 2002 Saint-Cyprien joined the merged UTC side. UTC won the 2005 French Championship and the 2004 and 2005Lord Derby Cups.
In 2006, UTC transferred from theFrench toBritish rugby league system, joining theSuper League XI following a successful application in 2005.[1] They were selected ahead ofToulouse Olympique andVilleneuve Leopards.[citation needed] After having planned to be called Perpignan, the club was named Catalans Dragons to represent the wholeCatalonia region, with matches played inCarcassonne andNarbonne, as well as across the border inFigueres in Spain[dubious –discuss] while expansion work at theStade Gilbert Brutus took place.[2] while a new club,Saint-Estève XIII Catalan, was formed in the French Championship to serve as a reserve team for the club.[citation needed] The club set a target for 75% of the players be qualified to play forFrance.[2]
The Catalans are the second French side to play in the Super League. The first,Paris Saint-Germain, lasted only two seasons. Bothrugby codes have their stronghold in the southwest of France, with the north favouringassociation football.
To ensure that the Catalans had the best French players available to them, the French rugby league decided to let them sign players from other French clubs without paying a transfer fee.[citation needed] The RFL also made them exempt from relegation for their first three years inSuper League.[1]
Many[who?] at the time believe the Catalans would be joined by other French clubs,[citation needed] but the idea of expanding into France had critics.[who?]
The Catalans won their first ever Super League match 38–30 againstWigan on 11 February 2006, atStade Aimé Giral. The club encountered difficulties in their first season in the Super League. Many of less experienced French players suffered from tiredness towards the end of an injury-marred campaign. A particular loss included captain Stacey Jones, who missed much of the season with a broken arm. The team finished bottom of the table, but the three-year exemption from relegation kept them in the Super League.
The year 2007 saw a strong recruitment by new coach Mick Potter with a string of high-profile signings from Australia, including Clint Greenshields, Casey McGuire, Jason Croker and Aaron Gorrell, all seasoned NRL campaigners. Gorrell, a goalkicking hooker, impressed in the first month but sustained a bad knee injury in February's win overLeeds and missed the rest of the season. On 10 March 2007, it was announced that Newcastle Knights hookerLuke Quigley would cover Gorrell's absence for the remainder of the campaign, but a number of players sustained injuries throughout the campaign.
On 29 July 2007, the Catalans became the firstFrench side and first non-British side to reach the final of theChallenge Cup after beatingWigan 37–24 in the semi-final. The Catalans lost the2007 Challenge Cup Final againstSt. Helens atWembley Stadium on 25 August 2007. They finished the2007 season in tenth place.
In2008, the Catalans secured their first playoff berth by finishing third in the league. They thrashedWarrington 46–8 in their first-ever playoff match on 13 September in Perpignan, but 20 September sawWigan end up victorious in what had been a close game in the second half of their elimination final, with Wigan winning 50–26.
Coach Mick Potter left the Dragons at the end of the 2008 season to replace Daniel Anderson at St Helens.
In 2009, they were involved in two historic milestones for the sport of rugby league in Europe. During their match away to theWelsh clubCrusaders on 23 May, the two clubs played the first Super League match to not feature an English team.[3] History was also created on 20 June, when the club played in the first Super League game to be played in Spain, atBarcelona'sEstadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, the venue for the1992 Summer Olympics, againstWarrington. The Dragons led 10–6 at halftime, but Warrington finished as the winners 12–24.[4] The purpose of the latter fixture was to promote the sport inCatalonia, with around 1000 tickets being sold in the local area, and the game was televised on the Catalan channelEl 33.[5] Immediately after the game, Walters commented that the event in Spain could become an annual one,[4] apparently complementing comments made by the club's general manager about using a newhigh-speed link between Perpignan and Spain, supposed to start running within two years.[5]
_-supporters_catalans_II.jpg)
In 2016 Catalans Dragons celebrated ten years in the Super League competition. After a recruitment drive, which saw a number of transfers from the NRL, expectations were high. After opening defeats to Wigan and Hull FC, the Dragons edged Leeds 32–28 in round three and then took seven wins from their next eight matches. Following their 42–32 win over Salford at the end of April, Laurent Frayssinous' side sat second in the table, level on points with leaders Warrington. However, a series of injury setbacks to key players in the second half of the season saw them drop down the table. Catalans lost their final six regular season games which meant they headed into the Super 8s two points adrift of fourth-placed St Helens. Five defeats from seven saw them finish the season in sixth place and miss out on a play-off spot. After a difficult two years at Huddersfield, Jodie Broughton's move to the south of France saw him kick-start his career. The winger scored 19 tries in 2016 including four in the Dragons' 30–12 win over St Helens in April. Todd Carney was released after two seasons at Catalans.[6]
On 25 August 2018, Catalans Dragons won their first British Rugby League trophy, after defeatingWarrington 20–14 in the2018 Challenge Cup Final, in the process becoming the first non-English team to win the competition.[7][8]
During the2019 season, Catalans Dragons held their home match againstWigan at theCamp Nou inBarcelona. The match was the firstSuper League game inSpain and attracted a record attendance for a Super League game, outside of theGrand Final orMagic Weekend, of 31,555. The game resulted in a 33–16 victory for the Dragons.[9]
On 28 January 2020, Catalans Dragons announced that they had signedIsrael Folau despite him holding to the Biblical teaching that those who practice homosexuality without repenting will go to hell (going so far as to suggest that the 2019–20 Australian bushfires were God's judgment on Australia for allowing same sex marriage and abortion).[10]Wigan Warriors responded by saying that their next game against Catalans would be named Pride Day.[11]
In2021, Catalans won Super League'sLeague Leaders' Shield for the first time, following a 31–30 golden point extra time victory over reigning championsSt Helens duringMagic Weekend. On 9 October 2021, Catalans played in their first everSuper League Grand Final with the opponents being reigning champions St Helens. Catalans lead the match in the second half but a try late to St Helens saw Catalans lose 12–10.[12]In the 2022 Super League season, Catalans finished 4th on the table and qualified for the playoffs. The club would be eliminated from the playoffs in the first week, suffering a shock 20-10 loss against Leeds.[13]
In the 2023 Super League season, Catalans finished second on the table, equal on points with Wigan who finished first. They would eventually reach the grand final after beating St Helens in the semi-final which ended the clubs four-year dominance of the competition. Catalans would go on to lose the2023 Super League Grand Final 10-2 againstWigan. Catalans became the first team since the Super League era began in 1996 to not score a try in the final.[14]In the2024 Super League season, Catalans had a disappointing campaign finishing 7th on the table and missing out on the playoffs.[15]In the 2025 Super League season, Catalans had an even tougher season than what they experienced in 2024 with the club finishing 9th on the table.[16]
The Catalans moved into the stadium in 2006, when they were accepted intoSuper League. They ground shared with rugby union sideUSA Perpignan, which own and operate the stadium, but it is a multipurpose stadium used occasionally for other sports and events.
The Stade Gilbert Brutus was opened in 1962 and has hosted mostly rugby league and union and hosted numerous test matches involving theFrance national team. It was previously the home toNorthern Catalonia rugby league team. When the Dragons moved in the capacity was just over 4,000.
The Catalans have redeveloped and expanded the ground to 13,000 since they moved here.
| Year | Kit Manufacturer | Main Shirt Sponsor |
|---|---|---|
| 2000–2008 | ISC | none |
| 2009 | Nike | IDEC |
| 2010–2011 | ISC | Seafrance |
| 2012–2018 | la Region | |
| 2019–2021 | O'Neills | |
| 2022–2026 | Macron |
| First team squad | Coaching staff | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
| Head coach Assistant coaches
| ||||||
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved. Find sources: "Catalans Dragons" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Player | From | Contract | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
 Toby Sexton |  Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs | 2 years | 3 July 2025 |
| Solomona Faataape |  Wests Tigers | 2 years | 27 July 2025 |
 Charlie Staines | 21 August 2025 | ||
 Harvey Wilson |  Salford Red Devils | 2 years | 30 July 2025 |
| Josh Allen |  Redcliffe Dolphins | 2 years | 6 August 2025 |
 Zac Lipowicz |  Penrith Panthers | 2 years | 13 August 2025 |
| Iszac Fa'asuamaleaui |  Gold Coast Titans | 2 years | 19 August 2025 |
| Josh Simm |  Castleford Tigers | 2 years | 6 September 2025 |
| Lewis Dodd |  South Sydney Rabbitohs | 2 years | 6 October 2025 |
| Ben Condon |  Widnes Vikings | 2 years | 14 October 2025 |
| Phoenix Laulu-Togaga'e |  Hull KR | 1 year | 24 October 2025 |
| Manase Kaho |  Norths Devils | 2 years | 10 December 2025 |
| Kruise Leeming |  Wigan Warriors | Loan until end of 2026 season | 17 January 2026 |
 Matty Russell |  Oldham | 13 February 2026 |
| Player | To | Contract | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
 Paul Séguier |  AS Carcassonne | 1 year | 4 August 2025 |
| Théo Fages |  Pia XIII Baroudeur | 1 year | 8 August 2025 |
| Bayley Sironen | 19 September 2025 | ||
| Fouad Yaha |  Albi Rugby League | 1 year | 25 September 2025 |
| Arthur Romano |  Hull FC | 2 years | 29 September 2025 |
| Jordan Dezaria | Hull KR | 3 years | 28 October 2025 |
 Tevita Pangai Junior | SC Leucate Corbières Méditerranée XV | 14 November 2025 | |
| Tanguy Zenon |  Halifax Panthers | 1 year | 15 November 2025 |
| César Rougé |  Toulouse Olympique | 1 year | 16 January 2026 |
| Oliver Partington | Wigan Warriors | 5 years | 18 January 2026 |
| Player | Date |
|---|---|
| Sam Tomkins | 27 August 2025 |
| Elliott Whitehead | 29 August 2025 |
 Reimis Smith | 2 September 2025 |
 Tariq Sims | 21 September 2025 |
 Luke Keary |
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(December 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Position | Staff |
|---|---|
| Head Coach | Joel Tomkins |
| Assistant Coach | Mitchell Pearce |
| Assistant Coach | Micky McIlorum |
| Assistant Coach | Ryan Sheridan |
| General Manager | Alex Chan |
| Performance Manager | Ryan Whitley |
| Head of Analysis | Mathis Giroux |
| Kit Manager | Romain Gardiole |
| Owner and Chairman | Bernard Guasch |
| Chief Executive | Sébastien Munoz |
| Commercial Director | Christophe Levy |
| Finance & Legal Director | Chantal Biasotto |
| Youth Training & Development | Thomas Bosc |
| Name | From | To | P | W | D | L | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mick Potter | 2007 | 2008 | 89 | 41 | 3 | 45 | 46% |
| Kevin Walters | 2009 | 2010 | 57 | 21 | 0 | 36 | 37% |
| Trent Robinson | 2011 | 2012 | 63 | 37 | 1 | 25 | 59% |
| Laurent Frayssinous | 2013 | 2017 | 139 | 66 | 6 | 67 | 47% |
| Michael Monaghan (interim) | 2017 | % | |||||
| Steve McNamara | 2017 | 2025 | 110 | 62 | 1 | 47 | 56% |
| Joel Tomkins | 2025 | present | 16 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 31% |
(in French)| Federation | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National teams | |||||
| Leagues |
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| Lord Derby Cup | |||||
| Other cups | |||||
| Rugby Football League teams |
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| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
