“Humiliated” – Steve McNamara fumes after being dumped from Challenge Cup

Huddersfield Giants sprung the upset in Perpignan yesterday when they hammered Catalans Dragons 34-6 to progress to the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup.

It was a result that shocked many fans with the Dragons strong favourites to progress and with the game not televised or even on radio in England, plenty were in for a surprise when they saw the wide margin of victory.

Huddersfield Giants have been able to put together some large wins so far this season on the road but their two most notorious came against Hull FC, Ian Watson’s side twice breaking the 50-point barrier with that most recent win culminating in Tony Smith’s sacking.

Putting up a huge win over Hull FC is one thing but doing it on the road to the Super League leaders to progress to the Challenge Cup semi-finals is another, and perhaps a sign that Huddersfield Giants should be considered far more in 2024.

For Steve McNamara though it was a ‘humiliating’ result with the Catalans boss reacting in his post-match press to express his disappointment at his side’s performance.

“We were beaten in every department tonight, very, very disappointing. Huddersfield have come and done a really good job on us,” the Englishman explained in his post-match presser shared online.

“Embarrassed” – McNamara reacts after Challenge Cup hammering

After heading to the top of Super League with a hard-fought victory over St Helens last weekend, it was a wildly uncharacteristic performance by Catalans Dragons that saw their Challenge Cup dream end.

Steve McNamara continued his tirade about how poor his side had been, explaining: “Like I said, they’ve beaten us in every department, physically, technically, tactically. They were smarter than us in every area. So it’s a very, very disappointing loss for us.”

He even admitted: “We’re a little bit embarrassed and clearly a little bit humiliated by it given it’s on our home ground and in the Challenge Cup, and knowing what’s at stake.”

Despite Catalans’ own pitfalls, McNamara was gracious in defeat and paid credit to the opponents with the Giants now putting together a four-game win streak in which they’ve totalled 31 tries.

“Credit to the opposition for actually putting us in that position and doing what they did to us,” McNamara said.

“Sometimes you bemoan your own performance, and we’re clearly unhappy with our performance, but the opposition put us there, in that position today.

“Our preparation has been outstanding the last couple of weeks, I thought we were ready to play. We need to find some answers to why it never happened tonight because our standards dropped so so far from where they have been to that performance which isn’t right for our club. ”

Huddersfield Giants will now go into the pot for the Challenge Cup semi-final draw which will be made live on the BBC at half-time in the St Helens and Warrington Wolves game.