Catalans Dragons icon Rémi Casty leaves club after landing head coach role
Rémi Casty in action for Catalans Dragons in 2020
Catalans icon Rémi Casty has left the club to take up a role as head coach of French Super XIII outfit Lezignan, the Dragons have confirmed.
Casty played 337 games for Catalans across two stints, separated by a sole season in the NRL in 2014 donning the colours of Sydney Roosters.
A 26-time France international, the legendary forward lifted the Challenge Cup as the Dragons beat Warrington Wolves at Wembley in 2018, and in 2021, he rounded off his playing career by helping Toulouse Olympique to promotion.
Still Catalans’ all-time record appearance holder today, Casty returned to the Stade Gilbert Brutus in 2023 as an assistant coach, and was named the head coach of the Dragons’ reserves side ahead of the following season.
Now, he has landed his first role as a head coach at senior level in the French Super XIII, and will take charge of Lezignan ahead of the new season in the domestic competition, which tends to begin at the back end of September.
Catalans Dragons icon Rémi Casty leaves club after landing Lezignan head coach role
When Casty hung up his boots at the end of the 2021 campaign, he did so having made 390 senior career appearances including his 26 caps for France.
The 41-year-old scored two tries on the international stage, and brought the curtain down on his career having scored 43 overall.
Under his tutelage as head coach, Catalans’ reserves lifted the Lord Derby Cup during the 2024/25 season, beating Albi 26-18 in the competition’s final, which took place in Casty’s hometown Narbonne.
Last term, Casty then led his side to a sixth-place finish in the Super XIII, squeezing into the play-offs where Limoux Grizzlies ended their campaign at the first hurdle.
Lezignan meanwhile finished eighth and did not make the play-offs, with Pia eventually being crowned champions at the end of a dramatic Grand Final against Carcassonne, won 31-30 by Theo Fages’ drop goal in Golden Point extra time.
That Grand Final took place as part of a double-header at the Stade Jean Bouin in Paris earlier this month alongside the historic Super League clash between Catalans and Wigan Warriors.
Casty now takes charge of a club who have not been crowned Super XIII champions since the 2010/11 campaign, with their last major honour coming 11 years ago in 2015 in the shape of the Lord Derby Cup.
