McNamara satisfied with positive step

New Catalan boss Steve McNamara says his team took a step in the right direction on Saturday despite losing 24-16 at Warrington.

The result took Warrington above the Dragons into ninth place, but McNamara believes his team can take plenty of heart from their performance.

“To see us compete and give ourselves a chance of winning the game up until the last three or four minutes means we have moved a step in the right direction,” said McNamara.

“It’s only one step and a small step – but it’s certainly a right step.

“It was a tough start, not the highest quality of games, but I saw a side that showed a lot more resilience than over the last couple of weeks and managed to stay in the contest.

“I enjoyed being back in the Super League environment, the opportunity came up to coach Catalans and I was really keen to do so, it’s a good club and a club with big ambitions and I’m hoping to fulfil those.

“It’s been a whirlwind to be honest. I arrived late Tuesday afternoon, took a practice session on Wednesday and a captain’s run so there was not a lot I could implement, but we had some good conversations and we went some way to doing some of the things we talked about doing.

“The biggest thing is we need to improve our discipline, not just penalties but in possession as well and the biggest area is in defence – you need to defend well to win games and that’s what the team has not been able to do this season. That’s an area I will be focusing very hard on.

“Whenever you change coach things aren’t going great – so you see and feel the pressure players are under and part of a coach’s job is to take the pressure off them and let them go out there and play.”