The brainchild of former rugby union star Jacques Fouroux, it was an attempt to market the younger code to a casual audience, as a summer tour contested by regional select teams between seasons of France's regular club championship.

The first edition received some positive reviews, but the long term viability of its business model remained unclear,[1] and it was quickly eclipsed by the expansion of Rupert Murdoch's Super League to the French market.

According to Fouroux, the league's impetus was a conversation with former South African international Morné du Plessis ahead of the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup.

Both expressed the desire for a new, more elitist club competition that would usher rugby into the professional era and pick the interest of the wider public beyond the temporary boost provided by that tournament.

[3] However, after prematurely siding with the wrong faction during the FFR's 1991 election campaign, Fouroux had lost much of his political clout within French rugby union, whose establishment remained ostensibly attached to amateurism.

[6] While some chalked Fouroux's sudden conversion from union down to political ambition, his prestige and the sport's yearning for a national footprint easily trumped those concerns within the French rugby league community.

[7] Upon his re-election at the head of the French Rugby League Federation (FFRXIII) on 25 February 1995 in Carcassonne, president Jean-Paul Ferré announced the impending creation—then slated for 11 Match 1995—of the new administrative body required by Fouroux's circuit.

[7] On 3 May 1995, the tour announced its first marquee hire, as France rugby union international fr:Thierry Devergie (FC Grenoble) signed for the team then identified as Lyon–Villeurbanne.

[18] The preliminary plan presented in November 1994 called for sixteen teams, each representing a region and bearing the name of a corporate sponsor in lieu of a nickname.

[3] He also expressed interest in a number of large or non-traditional rugby markets, which expanded up to northern cities like Strasbourg and Reims, due to the latter having recently lost its professional soccer team.

It aimed to sell the rugby action as part of a broader entertainment package, which included musical performances by artists well known to the general French public at the time, such as Rozlyne Clarke and Zouk Machine.

[15] Ultimately, the first edition's final was shown on premium channel Canal+, the broadcaster of Fouroux's exhibition rugby union team, the French Barbarians,[7] and the parent company of Paris Saint-Germain FC.

[3][24] As FRL's frontman, Fouroux received the presidency of the new PSG Rugby League, and the organization appointed Michel Mazaré as the team's manager on 16 December 1995 during a federal assembly in Albi.

In 2012, veteran sports executive fr:Luc Dayan, who had worked with PSG during its rugby league experiment and kept an affinity for the game, was commissioned by then FFRXIII president Nicolas Larrat to revive it.

[31] However, a regime change at the federation saw his successor Carlos Zalduendo prioritize a return of his club Toulouse Olympique to the RFL system, and the project was put on hold.

The following monikers were proposed: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Montagnards ('Mountaineers'), Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Guerriers ('Warriors'), Brittany Menhirs, Centre-Val de Loire Ogres, Corsica Pirates, Grand-Est Sangliers ('Wildhogs'), Hauts-de-France Tisonniers ('Fire Irons'), Île-de-France Parigots (slang for 'Parisians'), Normandy Cavaliers, Nouvelle-Aquitaine Vignerons ('Winemakers'), Occitania Ours ('Bears'), Pays de la Loire Sentinelles ('Sentinels') and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Aigles ('Eagles').

However, according to Luc Dayan, Ligue Nationale de Rugby president Paul Goze immediately vetoed the idea when approached, telling him: "Don't even try convincing me.