After a superb season which saw the Catalans Dragons rightly finish top of the league, they failed to go all the way last night as they were beaten by St Helens in a fantastic Grand Final.
It was a tight contest between the competition’s best two teams and it really could’ve gone either way. Ultimately, St Helens edged the game 12-10 thanks to a Kevin Naiqama brace. However Catalans still had time to win it after Naiqama’s second but had an attacking chance taken away from them when Sam Tomkins was controversially punished for an incorrect play-the-ball.
That was one of a number of decisions which went against the French side. Fouad Yaha could’ve had a penalty try when Tommy Makinson was sin binned in the second half and some believe an incident of foul play went unnoticed early in the game.
Ultimately, this has left some feeling that the Dragons were hard done by. Some even claimed that the French side were robbed by official Liam Moore who was enjoying his Grand Final debut along with the Dragons.
That was certainly the view of Catalans’ President Bernard Guasch in an interview with French paper L’Independent in which he vowed the Dragons won’t play in another Super League Grand Final unless it’s officiated by Australian referees.
He said: “As long as I’m president of the Catalans Dragons, I’ll never play a Super League final again until we have three Australian referees.
“I’m furious, at some point I say stop? I wanted to react like an English gentleman because I have a lot of respect for this competition.
“I am proud to have lived these three extraordinary days at Old Trafford as the English know how to organise them.
“But I saw the match again and I tell myself that I cannot let this go by without reacting and making a decision.”
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Sheogorath
October 10, 2021 at 2:33 pm
Racism in our sport is a cancer, Guasch must be punished heavily.
Bob Hill
October 10, 2021 at 7:03 pm
Guasch is a fat scruffy bad loser their number 10 should have been red carded for forearm smash to.our player lying on the ground and numerous genuine high tacjles not punished and catalans petsistebt lying on in the taclkle…watch the mstch again baldy and see that moore gsve you far more than Saints! Piss poor Loser!
JeebzCatalan
October 11, 2021 at 8:49 am
I don’t think racism is the right word. There’s litteraly 2 decisions that are really controversial. The referee didn’t take any action.
First Maloney gets punched and no action is taken (not even a penalty). It’s at least a yellow card, maybe red
Secondly Tomkins gets penalized for not playing the ball correctly. He can’t play it because one of saint helens player is blocking him. Also the ref never penalized any team for this reason during the whole game.
Such a big final needs to have a neutral ref. How would you feel if the a champions league final between United and PSG was to be refereed by a French ref?
Ian
October 10, 2021 at 7:52 pm
We dont need Catalan in our game, if he doesnt like it go elsewhere and play your rugby, hold on a minute I have just found his dummy.
Philip Smith
October 11, 2021 at 9:24 am
The whole super league season has the same refs so what’s different about the final. There is always contentious decisions regardless of who plays. Yes matautia could of been penalised, yes Coute had leg out, however on the other hand Makinson hit the body before the head and was down to speed of play and not a dirty tackle, yes a penalty and not a sin bin, would Catalans have scored if Makinson on the field? As for Tompkins he attempted to play the ball, whether an oppersition player was on him or not he didn’t correctly get to his feet or play it correctly, under the rules it was a correct decision. The comments from the President of Catalans are devisive and must be dealt with. Will he refuse to play games and a final if get there again “I don’t think so” surely the RFL should act on these comments as they have done to previous clubs like Ramon McManis of St. Helens.
Stuart Sutton
October 12, 2021 at 5:12 am
What a surprise St Helens get a dodgy decision in a grand final
Murph
October 12, 2021 at 8:40 am
I smell pie!