McNamara far from pleased

Catalans Dragons Head Coach Steve McNamara was impressed by the young Leeds team but admitted he was “far from pleased” with his own side’s performance tonight.

Catalans secured an all-important 34-6 win over Leeds Rhinos at Emerald Headingley stadium to reduce the gap between themselves and the top four.

However, despite coming away with the win, McNamara stressed that there’s plenty of room for improvement from his team.

He said: “We played against a team with a little bit of Super League experience and some good Championship players in there and some outstanding young English international kids.

“That was always going to be difficult, not helped by the absolute downpour.

“We got on top then we gave away an interception then you start thinking ‘is it going to be one of those nights’ scenarios.

“But we dug in to get the win. It was not a great performance by any stretch, a long way from that.

“Ultimately, it was a really important six percent or roughly that, and it obviously, it takes some off Leeds so in the whole context, it was important for us to win.”

The Dragons are set to spend the majority of October back home in France for their fixtures.

They are set to play the likes of Wakefield, Hull KR, Hull FC and Warrington in France, with an away match against Wigan sandwiched between them.

McNamara has called for his side to find their form in the period as his side continue the race for the top four.

He added, “We have a few home games coming up. We have Wakefield Sunday, Hull KR next Friday then Wigan away the following Wednesday.

“It is time to find our rhythm. The win tonight was important for league position.

“It was probably a good lesson for our boys to play in such conditions. This is what we will probably have to get use to for the rest of the season.

“Now it is time to find our ‘real’ form, rhythm and our heartbeat to our team for the next couple of weeks.”