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The Sydney Roosters had every reason to feel nervous on Thursday as Stade Francais officials descended on the NRL club’s training session at the SFS.
The conspicuous trio – who also attended NSW Waratahs and Sydney Swans practice – are in town for the week along with Stade coach Ewen McKenzie.
But forwards coach Fabrice Landreau insisted Stade, who already have St George Illawarra’s former Test rugby league star Mark Gasnier on their books, were not plotting any further raids on the NRL.
Landreau said the French rugby club representatives were merely in Sydney to check out the SFS’s impressive facilities.
“I stay just one week to look at the facilities, the organisation, talking with the coach,” he said.
“It’s very interesting. We have the same facilities in France, at Stade France, Paris, and I think in the next two years or three years we will build a big stadium … maybe we take the best idea from the Waratahs to Paris.”
Speculation was rife last month that Willie Mason was on the outer with the Roosters and rumoured to be considering a lucrative offshore cross-code move.
Landreau, though, said it was highly unlikely that Mason – or any other Roosters or Waratahs for that matter – would follow Gasnier and McKenzie, the ex-NSW coach, to Paris.
He said restrictions on overseas imports made it virtually impossible for Stade to recruit any more players.
“We have a problem in France. You can engage only two foreign players (per club),” Landreau said.
“It’s very, very difficult for the club because in Paris, for example, we have Agustin Pichot, who is an Argentinian player and Mark Gasnier is an Australian player.
“We can not engage another foreign player. It is difficult.”
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