Catalans Dragons set seven-day challenge ahead of make or break weekend

Steve McNamara will be asking some stern questions of his Catalans Dragons this week as he looks to get to the bottom of their poor form. The Dragons picked up the two points they required on Saturday night against London Broncos, but they did so in a manner that was far from convincing.

The French side were edgy, jaded and had to come from behind on home soil as the Broncos, who have been replaced at the foot of the table by Hull FC, held a half-time lead. Scores from Arthur Romano and Jarrod Wallace made sure of the result and kept their season alive going into the final week of the regular campaign, but the performance was far from what McNamara expected of his side.

Catalans round their season off with a trip to Hull on Saturday and they could find themselves playing for a spot in the play-offs should results at the Leigh Sports Village and Craven Park go their way. Losses for Leigh Leopards and Leeds Rhinos would leave the door open for the Dragons to climb back into the top six and set up an away elimination play-off tie.

However, the win was Catalans Dragons’ first in five games, having lost form at the wrong time, and McNamara will be determined to see improvements next week whether the club have anything to play for or not.

“We had all the intentions to go out and play really well but we’ve gone out and played poorly tonight in certain areas,” McNamara said after the game. “We’re struggling to understand exactly why but the positive thing there is that we get to go down to the last weekend.

“Clearly we need another result to go our way, or two. We have to win the game ourselves but I think quite clearly we’re not in great form but we’re going to have to find it in the space of seven days.

“It was like we were trying not to lose rather than trying to win and we had so many opportunities to score in both halves and the more we got stopped, the most concerned we became. It was a tough night but thankfully we got the win.

“I think the big thing is to recover from this game and find out why we were so nervous and didn’t play well and move on quickly and get it put right.”