Steve McNamara makes joke about Sky Sports pundit after Catalans Dragons man’s hattrick

After his side’s 38-10 win over Salford Red Devils, Catalans Dragons boss Steve McNamara revealed the pundit his squad had been joking about.

Catalans moved up to seventh with the win as Salford lost yet another game this season with their brave efforts not enough to stop the immensely powerful Dragons pack, the main beneficiary of which was Tommy Makinson.

The former St Helens man registered his first tries since making the switch to the South of France as he scored not one, not two, but three, with the hattrick score coming in the final minute of the game.

With Makinson breaking his duck, the Catalans squad can stop using the nickname they’d allegedly given him of ‘Jon Wells’ with Steve McNamara firing a joke at the former winger turned pundit.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Wells’ employers, McNamara revealed:”The boys were starting to call him Jon Wells who I think went one season without scoring any tries so they had nicknamed him that, but now he’s put that away.

“The boys were having a joke with him but he works so, so hard for the team. It’s a pleasure to coach and have him around us and for him to get three tries tonight, including the one down at the end there, just to put the scoreboard in the right direction for us was important.”

Catalans Dragons boss gives injury update following Salford Red Devils win

He had initially assessed the win as “job done” with Catalans having raced into a 16-0 lead after 16-0 minutes before slowing down and even conceding, something McNamara admitted he was disappointed with.

The Catalans coach said: “We knew it was going to be difficult today with Salford coming and throwing the ball around a little bit there. I thought we started really well, I thought we really really dominated but lost our way a little bit at the end of the first half.

“It was nice to score some points but I’m disappointed that we conceded a couple of tries later on.”

Asked about playmaker Luke Keary, who earned Sky Sports’ Man of the Match, and the time it’s taken the former State of Origin man to truly bed in, McNamara admitted: “The team’s taken a little bit of time to be honest, but we’re still developing in that way.

“We’ve had to work really, really hard to get ourselves back in a position where we’ve got some points on the board and we’re in the semi-final of a Challenge Cup. We’re a long way off where we want to be and Luke is as well, but he was a lot better tonight.”

Having just moved ahead of Wakefield Trinity in the league, Catalans are within touching distance of the play-offs as they head into a huge month and the Dragons will see some welcome faces return.

Looking forwards, McNamara said: “I think next game’s a really big challenge, Wakefield have been awesome this year. So I think we’ve got to look forward to that one next, before we move on to what is Magic and then into a semi-final.

“We’ll definitely we get Elliott Whitehead back next week, Nick Cotric should be back available, potentially Sam Tomkins as well so hopefully we’ve got some options again. We’re getting stronger as the season goes on and hopefully that will continue.”

Rounding off Rivals Round with a Dragons success 🐉#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/X594h7Sp91

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