“Are we supposed to come here and…” – McNamara left frustrated with refereeing decision despite win

Though we will see some huge games tonight as Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves, Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR and Huddersfield Giants and Wakefield Trinity meet, they will have to go some way to top the game last night.

It was likened to a semi-final multiple times and could very well be a Grand Final rehearsal as Super League and World Champions St Helens came up short against league leaders Catalans Dragons.

The result leaves Saints six points behind Catalans in third with Leigh Leopards sandwiched in between.

It was was a great win for the Dragons and after the game Steve McNamara expressed his views on Sky Sports: “Well we were in front all the way throughout the game so I think it was likely in some regards but we had to overcome a fair bit of adversity there and a few bits went against us but we managed to dig in and found some real spirit there to win the game.

“We were under pressure at the end could have gone either way but I thought it was a real semi-final style game.”

At halftime Jenna Brooks reported that he was unhappy and on this McNamara said: “We were on the wrong end of a fair few calls and I don’t know.

“Are you supposed to come here and not get off your line and chase them and put pressure on the opposition and things like that?

“That and having to defend probably more than we should have done based on some of the things that decisions that got made.”

Ultimately, he placed the focus on his side’s defence however:

“Yeah well it’s really I think it’s an area there that every coach and every team knows if you’re going to go anywhere in the competition you’re going to have to defend really well.

“These are sort of you know grand final style scores 14-12, 12-10 you, know two tries one tries against them to be able to absorb lots of pressure and be able to do that and not concede is really important. I don’t think we’ve been as good as that this season as we probably would like to have been at certain stages but tonight we’re certainly up there.”