Angry Catalans Dragons coach Steve McNamara was ‘p*****off’ with a “nearly impossible” penalty count in his side’s Challenge Cup semi-final loss to Hull KR.
McNamara admitted Catalans were second-best in front of a sell-out crowd of over 8,000 at York Community Stadium, but reckoned if they’d had some penalties when they led 12-10 late in the first half, the momentum might have changed.
“Hull KR were the best team and deserved to win,” he stressed. “But how on earth you can go 80 minutes and not receive one penalty – other than one when they kicked out on the full – or one six-again, that’s nearly impossible in this game.”
He fumed: “It was a semi-final on a neutral venue – the game is attritional and momentum can swing very quickly on the back of decisions and calls. I will watch the semi-final tomorrow and see if it is whatever to zero in the penalty count then as well, because that’s not acceptable.
“We clearly were second-best, but there were periods in that game where, if we could have earned a few penalties and been able to get a bit of field position, potentially the energy could have swung from that.”
McNamara was anxious for his comments not to seem like sour grapes. “I have to give a huge amount of respect to Hull KR, who played very well,” he said.
“They are a good team, they deserved to win, they were better than us on the day, but this is a separate side to me – you tell me how that happens.
“Have you ever seen a game where a team doesn’t receive a penalty? Clearly I am really annoyed with that side of it.
“We tried so hard. A couple of things went against us early and we went 10-0 down. Normally Hull KR swamp you at that point, that’s what they do, it’s what they are very, very good at.
“We got ourselves back to 12-10, but then we probably spent too much energy. We probably didn’t work hard enough at certain times ourselves, but I am p***** off not to receive a penalty – apart from them kicking out on the full and you can’t not give that one.”
The Catalans Dragons boss said he was “concerned” before the game and explaining why, added: “Because Hull KR’s home games this year, 42 penalties given and 16 conceded – only three six-agains all year.
“This was not supposed to be a home game, though it felt like it. Covid [games behind closed doors] showed the way – then everyone’s penalty counts were even. I can’t reiterate any more, Hull KR fully deserved to get that, they are a better team than us right now and they played better than us. But that’s impossible – so many things are tough for us, but not to receive one, please.”
Catalans Dragons boss on his side’s Hull KR boss
The French side were also upset at James Batchelor’s first try, awarded by video referee Ben Thaler. McNamara said: “There’s more than just the penalties involved in this.
“They are one stat, but that clearly looked like it wasn’t a try to me. I thought it would have gone up as no-try and probably comes back as no-try. Ours went up as no-try, but thankfully it was proved it was a try. There was lots of things in that game.
“We know we have to be better than every other team and we weren’t – that’s the problem, we got picked apart at certain stages by a very good team. I get that, but in a semi-final you have to be disciplined. If Hull KR can come out and not give one penalty away, that’s incredible discipline.”
Despite his anger, McNamara said he won’t be taking the matter further. He said: “The job’s done now. Maybe it’s justified and we didn’t deserve to get one, but I find it incredible.
“We can blame ourselves in some areas as well. I am not blaming the referee, we weren’t good enough. Some of our efforts were poor, but I can’t leave this stadium without talking about it.”
6 Comments
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
International Rugby League
NRL star granted permission to switch allegiance to England ahead of Ashes
Everyone In RL
May 10, 2025 at 7:33 pm
The simple fact is McNamara your team is slow and ill disciplined. There is no conspiracy the team you have put together is not good enough to win big games.
Colin Baker
May 10, 2025 at 7:37 pm
The best team won Mac live with it.
Mark Watson
May 10, 2025 at 9:24 pm
I was at the game as a fan of neither team. I must agree with Steve, even the hull kr fans were laughing at how lenient the ref was to there team. It did feel like the dragons were up against it. When Lewis hit whitehead in the face and the bachelor try, both went krs way. The fans were laughing.
Rushy64
May 11, 2025 at 11:25 am
So – you choose to go the other way and see just the Catalan side. Did you actually watch the screen for the Lewis – Whitehead tackle? Have you watched it on the TV since? If the answer to either is yes, how did you not manage to see the several times Whitehead’s elbow was leaning on the side of Lewis’ head, or not realise Lewis was trying to push off Whitehead because of that.
Personally I’d say it was borderline whether Whitehead should have gone in the bin.
Rushy64
May 11, 2025 at 11:39 am
There’s a simple solution for McNamara if the thinks the referee was influenced by the almost entirely Hull KR crowd. Get some Catalan supporters to turn up to games in this country! I was in York from around 11:00 until 19:00 and, other than on the pitch during the game, I didn’t see a single Dragons shirt. This was a Challenge Cup semi-final and the lack of presence of any French support was pathetic.
Even if it had just been the same number as most English fans take to the games in Catalan it would have been enough to make some noise on their behalf.
in any case, there is a large hole in his argument and that is that for the majority of league matches, whether a large away following or very few, the penalty counts are generally pretty even, so maybe the match yesterday was a result of Catalan unable to cope with the speed of Rovers play?
Other than two terrible video ref decisions for tries (you can rely on Thaler!) I thought the officials were pretty lenient with Catalans – particularly their persistent two or three yards offside at the play the ball.
Eric T Cat
May 11, 2025 at 3:56 pm
You would need to analyse more factors, starting with the Hull KR penalty and six again count for away matches. If those counts are equally low then player discipline is a factor. One thing I note is that Willie Peters has brought a speed to Rovers play, that for periods of 20 minutes or so they will play at NRL intensity, but that requires exceptional defensive discipline, that leads to a low penalty count.
The play the ball requirement should require the foot to be placed on the ball, and it to be played properly, a rule they enforce in the NRL, and it’s a good rule in my opinion. Both teams would have been hammered for that yesterday.
I did comment on the referee and video referee being the absolute nightmare combination before kickoff, several days. If watching on TV I typically avoid his game for the sake of my blood pressure. But I imply no wrongdoing on the part of the officials, nor should any be inferred. As stated previously, bookmakers spend vast sums on complex data analysis of virtually every factor possible, in every sport on which they take bets. They pay really good salaries to experts in the field, if there was the vaguest hint of a whiff of wrongdoing they would involve the police in a heartbeat., suspend all betting, and seek prosecutions. If they felt the RFL “told” a referee which side they want to win then they would involve the police, suspend at bets, and the resulting lawsuits from anyone who ever placed a bet end the sport!
Maybe, just maybe, on the day Rovers put in a strong disciplined performance, against a disjointed Catalans team that only played well for 20 minutes. But for a few moments of glory hunting, some poor passes, the Rovers could easily have topped 50 points.