Steve McNamara not getting carried away following win over St Helens

Catalans Head Coach Steve McNamara has said he is not getting carried away with his side’s win over St Helens.

The Dragons recovered from eight-nil and 14-10 down to win the rematch between last season’s Grand Finalists.

McNamara was pleased with the win, given who they had missing. From last week’s game at Castleford, Tom Davies, Mike McMeeken, Ben Garcia, Julien Bousquet and Joe Chan all missed out.

“We had a six-day turnaround after Castleford. We had lots of adversity in the week and lots of adversity during the game,” McNamara said.

“I don’t want to get too carried away but that is a great result and a great performance from the team on the back of the adversity its had this week. We were down to our last 17 players basically.

“But it’s about the players that played, not the players that didn’t play and they took their chances against a very, very good team.

“I thought Saints played pretty well and we had to play a little bit better to beat them. I thought we were probably the better team today.

“We knew we had to respond to last week, that was the most important thing.”

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McNamara points to first half when game changed

McNamara also believed the fact that St Helens were not kicking their goals made the game closer. The champions had failed to convert any of their first three tries, meaning their biggest lead was eight points.

The Dragons were also down to 12 men for a portion of the first half after Dylan Napa was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on Ben Davies.

“We were under pressure at the start of the game, conceding two tries, but missing the goalkicks kept the scoreboard a little bit closer,” McNamara added.

“I thought from midway through the first half we found some rhythm and we went on to play pretty consistent after that.”

Catalans 20-18 St Helens: Dragons win Grand Final repeat