During the Second World War, in association with the French Rugby Federation (FFR), the sport was banned by the Vichy government, an act from which the code has struggled to recover.

Allegations of professionalism and on-field violence in internationals led to France's suspension from the rugby union Five Nations Championship in 1931.

Following development work by both Harry Sunderland (on behalf of the Australian Rugby League) and the British Rugby Football League, the Australian and British Test teams played an exhibition game at Stade Pershing in Paris in late December 1933.

An earlier exhibition match between the two teams had been attempted to be played in Paris during the 1921-22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain, but this had been blocked by the FFR.

Then in 1934, Jean Galia took a French team that had never played rugby league to Yorkshire and Lancashire in England.

[3] With France's continued suspension from the Five Nations Championship preventing its players from participating in quality international competition, many began to consider the newly introduced 13-man code.

With rugby league's acceptance of professionalism and spectator-friendly rules, the French viewed it as a modern and innovative game, and it grew quickly in popularity.

[8] The federation was reinstated in September 1944, but the damage caused by the Vichy Government's actions proved to be long-lasting and rugby league struggled to regain its pre-war momentum.

[10] Rugby league remained banned in schools and was limited to 200 professional players under this dubious arrangement.

In February 1996, a French team, Paris Saint-Germain was formed to take part in the otherwise English Super League.

The French Minister of Sport commissioned an enquiry, which found in favour of XIII Actif but nothing was done to ameliorate the damage done to rugby league.

At its height, the French Championship maintained teams from the big cities of Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse, as well as the passionate smaller rugby league towns of Carcassonne, Avignon, Lezignan, Albi, Villeneuve and Perpignan.

However, the introduction of Catalans Dragons into Super League in 2006 and Toulouse Olympique into RFL Championship in 2009 has seen increased coverage with articles appearing in national newspapers such as L'Équipe, Libération and Le Figaro.

In 2009, it was announced that France would enter the Tri-Nations tournament as a fourth team (necessitating its renaming to the Rugby League Four Nations), playing alongside Australia, New Zealand and England.

The introduction of Catalans Dragons into the Super League and recent strong performances from the international side led to this decision.

[28][29] Unlike, for instance, the BBC, France Television don't offer any programme to the French public about Rugby League.

Explanations usually given are the low number of participants in France but also pressure which would be made by the Union authorities on the French Public Television Group.

Orange TV had also secured to rights to broadcast Super League, the Four Nations and the European Cup in 2009.

Presently, French clubs have to fund the broadcast of their own games (e.g., Dragons Catalans) or to televise their own matches themselves via the social networks or Youtube.

Radio France Bleu Roussillon carries commentary on every Catalans Dragons away match played in the UK.