Language is no barrier for happy Dragon Broughton
Catalans Dragons winger Jodie Broughton is enjoying his time in the South of France, having adapted well linguistically as well as on the rugby pitch.
Broughton sees no point in playing in Perpignan and not being able to speak French, especially as the language is used by the players to communicate, at least half of the time, on the field.
“We use a bit of both languages,” he explained to Love Rugby League.
“With our plays, some of them are in English, some in French.
“The key words are done in English or French, but it’s the same word every time, so we know what’s happening.
“I suppose there is a bit of language barrier sometimes.
“We’ve got a young half back, Lucas Albert, who’s been fantastic for us this year.
“He doesn’t speak great English, but when he’s been in there with Todd Carney they’ve had a really good mutual understanding.
“We spend a lot of time together too, and that helps.
“We have French lessons every couple of weeks. It was pretty intense at first, but now we’re in the season it’s just every couple of weeks.
“I don’t see the point of going over there for two years, or however long I’m there for, without speaking a little bit of the language.”
Broughton’s own form this season has been sparkling, with the winger grabbing 18 tries and three assists in his 20 games in 2016.
He puts his improvement in form down to feeling much more content at his new club, as well as the quality of the players in the Dragons team.
“To be honest, I’ve probably been the happiest I’ve been playing rugby,” he said.
“In the last two years at Huddersfield, I wasn’t playing regular football, and that got me down a little bit.
“The last year I had at Salford it was all in a bit of turmoil.
“If you’re happy off the field it shows on the field too.
“That’s been the main reason for it. We’ve got a lot of great players in our team, Todd Carney, Glenn Stewart, Dave Taylor, Krisnan Inu all playing inside me – it makes my job a hell of a lot easier.
“I’m thankful for that too.”
Broughton also attributes much of his happiness to working with Catalans coach Laurent Frayssinous, though the winger acknowledges the differences of working with a Frenchman for the first time.
“It’s good, it’s very different,” he said.
“He’s a very good bloke, he’s well respected in the local area.
“He’s been at the Catalans since it started, he was the original full back for the first ever Catalans Dragons side.
“For me, he lets me get on with what I want to do, and if there’s any direction he wants to give me, then he’ll point me in the right way.
“I think that’s what I need personally. If you let me do what I can do, and then just guide me, then I’m a better person, I’m a lot happier.
“We work well together I think.”
The English winger is also optimistic about the future of the Catalans Dragons, given the amount of young French talent now playing regularly in the club’s first team.
“I think the first time we played a predominantly French side was against Warrington,” he said.
“We narrowly lost that game and we maybe should have won it.
“The French lads have been really good. They buy into everything that we do.
“We’ve got a lot of new personnel in the team this year who have probably changed the culture a little bit, and the French lads have bought into that.
“We have got a lot of strength in depth. Once a lot of the French lads start to play more consistently in a few years, then the club will progress.”
The Dragons are collectively in confident mood too, despite their recent poor form in Super League, as they head into the Super Eights.
“We’ve got a few players back now, the week off will have done us good,” he said.
“It could be a blessing in disguise, given the way games have gone in recent weeks.
“If we can emulate our form from around the Easter period, when we won seven in a row, and beat some good teams as well, then we’ll stand ourselves in good stead.
“Our ultimate goal is to be in that top four and make the semi-finals.”