Catalans to remain grounded after first defeat of the season, says Steve McNamara

Steve McNamara hopes his Catalans Dragons side do not lose sight of the bigger picture after tasting defeat for the first time in 2021.

The Dragons remain in the play-off places after four rounds of action, despite sixth-placed Warrington closing the gap between the sides down to one point with a determined 24-8 victory in Perpignan. 

Having trailed 8-0 thanks to a try, conversion and penalty goal from James Maloney, Warrington roared back with quickfire scores before half-time.

After the break, a Jake Mamo intercept and Gareth Widdop’s third of the season steered the visitors to a first win at the Stade Gilbert Brutus since 2018. 

READ: Catalans 8-24 Warrington: Wolves end Dragons’ winning run

“We are all frustrated and disappointed at not getting the win and not playing as smooth as we have done,” McNamara said.

“It was a really tough game, and the tries scored from errors or intercepts are difficult to handle, there were not a lot of points scored tonight from structured play.

“But just like we didn’t overreact to our recent wins, we won’t overreact to tonight’s loss.”

Catalans will have the chance to exact revenge when the sides face off again in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals in less than two weeks.

Before then, McNamara is confident that the level-headed nature of his squad will come to the fore heading into next Friday’s visit to Wakefield, who are still searching for their first win of the season. 

The Dragons boss added: “The effort was there, the intent from the team. We were just a little off the mark and weren’t good enough to get the win in the end.

“We want to get out there next week and put on a better performance against Wakefield.

“We’ve been on the right side of these kinds of results recently, things have gone our way, but not tonight – we just have to acknowledge that and work on it.”

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