Israel Folau is rumoured to be free to make his Southport Tigers debut this weekend.
He and the clubs controversial owner are said to have settled out of court with the Catalans Dragons.
I have two final points to make on this...
Treize Mondial are reporting that Greg Bird is leaving the club to return to Australia after St Esteve were knocked out of the Elite 1 play offs.
More to come on this websites last Hall of Fame entry, as the news sinks in.
We will miss the great man.
The domestic season is over for the Catalans who fell one match short of making the final against Carcassonne in Toulouse.
Level at the interval Justin Murphys time slipped behind finishing up over a score adrift.
However in his first season as coach and with a disrupted season, we can measure 2020/2021 as a success.
A number of players in this squad now look like possible Super League players and despite a drop off in the final month of the campaign results have been good over the season.
Lézignan (12) 26
T : Marginet, Tort, Ferret, Lolo
G : Marginet 4
DG : Marginet, J. Guasch
St Estève XIII Catalan (12) 18
T : Rougé, Khedimi, Brochon
G : Brochon 3
DG :
Line-ups
Lézignan : Stacul, Izard, Ferret, Bonneriez, Tort, Lacans, Marginet, Moa, Guasch, Maria, Lolo, Gagan, Ors
Subs : Th. Margalet, Albert, Malfaz, Tr. Margalet
St Estève XIII Catalan : Brochon, Flovie, Laguerre, J. Chan, Franco, Meresta-Doucet, Rougé, Vailhen, Zafra, Scimone, Le Cam, Perez, Cozza
Subs : Llong, Laurent, T. Chan, Khedimi
After their recent dodgy form, St Esteve were left with the toughest route to the French Elite 1 final.
The showpiece match looked a long way away at half time in this one with Justin Murphy's side trailing at the interval.
St Estève XIII Catalan (9) 43
T : Rougé, Llong, Flovie, Laurent, Perez, Franco, J. Chan
G : Brochon 6, Perez
DG : Rougé
Villeneuve (14) 24
T : Tuitahi, Bachoukh, Godinet, Tabu
G : Lasvenes, Kriouache
DG :
The scorline doesn't quite paint the true picture as we only got 25-24 ahead in the last few minutes of the match before adding gloss to the score.
We move on to face Lezignan next weekend in a really tough looking match on paper.
Lézignan (12) 22
T : Stacul, Lacans, Maria
G : Marginet 5
St Estève XIII Catalan (10) 20
T : Franco, Jobe, Flovie, Cozza
G : Brochon 2
St Esteve proved their recent patchy form wasn't just a blip by losing again over the weekend.
This loss to Lezignan sees them drop to 4th in the table with the regular season now being over.
Their route to the finals will now be much harder, but more importantly Justin Murphy will need to get a big performance and result out of his men.
Villeneuve (8) 22
T : Vergniol, Brioux, Robin
G : Lasvesnes 4
St Estève XIII Catalan (0) 8
T : Zafra, Jobe
G :
A shock defeat for St Esteve over the weekend with a confident home performance by Villeneuve enough to see them over the line for a comfortable win.
Villeneuve : Lasvesnes, Bachoukh, Brioux, Tuitahi, Nicolas, Kriouache, Robin, Pettybourne, Godinet, Masselot, Vergniol, Benouahab, Biscarro
Subs :Gautier, Coutinho, Mika, Tabu
St Estève XIII Catalan : Franco, Zenon, Carré, Laurent, Jobe, Zafra, Rougé, Cozza, Meresta-Doucet, Dezaria, Goffin, Le Cam, Perez
Subs : Llong, Khedimi, Vailhen, Scimone
2 defeats in a row isn't enough to press the panic button just yet, but there will be some raised eyebrow at our form as the play offs loom.
St Estève XIII Catalan (6) 30
T : Jobe, Le Cam, Baby, Rougé, Perez
G : Brochon 5
Avignon (18) 38
T : Pourret, Rey, Demonte, F. Jullien, Bissière, Moran
G : Rey 7
A rare defeat for St Esteve as Avignon came to Perpignan and took the competition points with a clever display.
This top of the table clash has been postponed again from this weekend due to positive tests in the Lezignan camp.
St-Estève XIII Catalan (26) 42
T : Dezaria, Franco, Le Cam, J. Chan 2, T. Chan 3
G : Brochon 5
Albi (10) 22
T : Grabulos, Pedrero 2
G : Goze 5
St-Estève XIII Catalan: Brochon, Franco, Jobe, Carré, Tison, Zafra, Saliès,Dezaria, Meresta-Doucet, Cozza, Le Cam, J. Chan, Perez
Subs: Laurent, Khedimi, Scimone, T. Chan.
Albi : Goze, Pedrero, Boualem, Bianchini, Deburghgraeve, Cance, Binda, Molinier, Grabulos, Pomie, Bonilla, Camposet, Andral.
Subs: Walton, Zaurini, Hubert, Tailhades
Jordan Dezaria celebrated his return to the club and new contract by getting St Esteve up and running in this regulation win over Albi.
After the Lezignan postponement it was good to get back up and running.
You can enjoy the whole match (in case you missed it) here...
Hopes were high for this top of the table clash in Elite 1 over the weekend but the scourge of the world, Covid 19 prevented Justin Murphy and his side from taking the chance to build on their derby win over Palau the previous weekend.
At this stage it isn't clear if this will be rescheduled, we hope sincerely that it will and that the Lezignan player is ok and not affected too strongly by the virus and their positive test.
Palau (8) 14
T : H. Miloudi 2
G : A. Miloudi 3
Saint-Estève-XIII Catalan (20) 36
T : Carré 2, Cozza, Flovie, Llong, Zenon
G : Franco 6
Super Romain Franco has added kicking to his already wonderful game and was able to ensure a decent away win in the derby over Palau.
To be fair, since the home side sacked Olivier Elima we have been less into them as our second team. So feelings weren't as mixed as they were when the two teams last met.
It was great to see Dragons coach Steve McNamara in attendance casting his eye over Justin Murphy and Greg Birds team.
With the clubs new found strategy of going for younger home grown players over NRL cast offs I hope that this is the dawn of a truly new era for us.
A narrow away win against Albi for the title chasing St Esteve side.
No video highlights or much detail on this one so we will leave by saying... well done Justin and the lads :)
St Gaudens (6) 20
T : Wall, Moliner, Marty
G : Chanet (4)
St-Estève XIII Catalan (12) 40
T : Cozza (3), Le Cam, Llong, Carré, Payrou
G : Brochon (6)
A hat-trick from Mathieu Cozza was enough to get the win in this road game with St Gaudens.
The win keeps us 2nd in in the table hot on the heels of Carcassonne 1 point behind.
St-Estève XIII Catalan (6) 24
T : Flovie 2, Goffin, Dezaria
G : Brochon 4
Carcassonne (16) 28
T : Gambaro, A. Escamilla 2, Herréro, A. Albérola
G : Herréro 4
The Catalans 7 match winning run came to an end late on against another of Elite 1's big guns in Carcassonne.
After a spectacular run of wins that took them to the summit this loss saw them replaced by their vanquishers.
The play off positions look quite tight now, especially the last of the 4 slots with Avignon battling Limuox and Villeneuve.
St-Estève XIII Catalan (18) 26
T : Rougé 3, Jobe
G : Brochon 5
Villeneuve (4) 16
T : Melhout (5), Tuitahi (50), Dubertrand
G : Brioux 2
A 7th win in a row sees our domestic league side leap to the top of Elite 1 playing some dynamite rugby in the process.
Credit to Villeneuve though who never let the game get away from them and played a part in another entertaining match streamed live on Youtube.
Its another win for the Dragons as we enjoy a period of matches being played consistently in Elite 1.
The domestic league arm of the club has now won 6 on the bounce but the standard of the league is such that this is still only enough for 3rd place.
However with a play off system in place Justin Murphy's men will be a team the others will want to avoid should their be status quo until the season ends.
This was another match where the Dragons showed their physical nature and refused to back down. A side with Greg Bird on the bench would hardly be otherwise set up would it?
There was a downside to the win with exciting prospect Arthur Morgue sustaining an ACL injury that not only ends his Elite 1 season but Super League as well. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Toulouse (6) 6
T : Laguerre
G : Pallarès
St-Estève XIII Catalan (18) 36
T : Vailhen, Franco 2, Khedimi, Jobe, Zafra, Colchero
G : Brochon 4
I really enjoyed watching this points fest and despite the scoreline suggesting otherwise there was plenty of admirable defence to admire.
St Estève XIII Catalan (16) 46
T : Robin Brochon, Arthur Mourgue, Corentin Le Cam, Arthur Romano, Mathieu Laguerre, Ugo Perez, Romain Franco, César Rougé
G : Arthur Mourgue 6, Robin Brochon
Limoux (14) 24
T : Eli Levido, Tony Maurel, Zac Santo, Jordan Drew
G : Eli Levido 4
Despite plenty of covid related stoppages its now 5 wins in a row for St Esteve as we edge towards the play offs.
With talk of NRL players coming on contract to boost our squad numbers for 2021 Super League we call again for Steve McNamara to have a look internally.
Could Romain Franco do a job at centre for example?
Jordan Flovie and of course Correntin le Cam also continue to earn rave reviews.
Let's wait and see and hope!
The man who won us the 2018 Challenge Cup Final (albeit not single handedly!) has moved back to France from Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.
Tony Gigot left the Yorkshire side last week and has been quick to link up with his hometown club Avignon in the French Elite 1 competition.
Tony remains one of our favourite ever Dragons so we are delighted to see him continuing his career and closer to home.
Jordan Flovie scored a length of the field wonder try which ended up being the difference in this windswept match over the weekend.
We are at home to Albi next week.
