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‘I do not think they were sin-bins’ – McNamara unhappy with referee calls in Saints defeat

Catalans head coach Steve McNamara questioned some on-field decisions as his side were dumped out of the Super League play-offs 48-2 by St Helens.

During the game, both James Maloney and Benjamin Garcia were show yellow cards for high tackles on Regan Grace and Jonny Lomax respectively.

Saints capitalised by scoring a number of tries in the game while the Dragons were down to 12 men, and after the game McNamara questioned the decisions.

He said:  I do not think that in semi-final football, they were sin-bins.

“You talk about the biff and the bash, the physicality and how sometimes it can go over the top, we encourage that.

“In a semi-final, the stakes are high and sometimes some of those tackles do slip up a little bit.

“It is not one of them where, as a coach, to study each incident, I think that people think that as it has unfolded.

“You are probably looking more about your players and you ask questions of your staff and everything else.

“We will look at them more closely but I did think that the second sin-bin, Benjamin Garcia’s, was not a sin-bin.”

Despite a rather dismal finish, McNamara credited the efforts of his players on how tough it has been for them to complete the 2020 season.

He added, “The travel could have been a step too far but I cannot use it as an excuse.

“For example, last week, after the semi-final against Leeds, we arrived back home at 4am.

“We lost a whole nights’ sleep then you are into Sunday, when it feels like you have jetlag then you are into Monday, where you start training and preparing.

“These boys have gone through this consistently over a period of time.

“They have never moaned, they have just got on with it and tonight, we really needed to be at our best to win that game.

“I felt like that they wanted to be at their best, they were ready to be at their best but then once things fell apart for us, we pulled ourselves apart in that second half and it was tough to watch.”

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. DG

    November 21, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    Coming from the same guy who thought that Mcllorum & Tomkins didn’t do anything wrong the week before. Idiot!!! They all got what they deserved.

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