Aurelien Cologni has been appointed as the successor to Englishman Richard Agar as coach of the France rugby league team.
The 38-year-old's first match in charge will be against England, also under a new coach in Wayne Bennett, in Avignon on Saturday, October 22, which will be the start of his preparations for the 2017 World Cup.
The appointment follows the election of Marc Palanques as president of the French Federation in July, taking over from Carlos Zalduendo, the man who appointed Agar in February 2013.
Cologni, who had a spell in temporary charge of France in 2012, will become the first Frenchman to take the national team into a World Cup since Yvan Greseque in 1995 after the previous reigns of Australian John Monie (2000), former Great Britain international Bobbie Goulding (2008) and Agar (2013).
