After Catalans Dragons were handed a 40-0 defeat by St Helens, head coach Steve McNamara hit back at questions regarding the club’s support of him.
The Englishman is the longest-serving head coach in Super League after taking over in Perpignan in 2017, leading Catalans to a Challenge Cup win in 2018 and to two Grand Finals.
However, 2024 and now 2025 have been far less fruitful with Catalans missing the play-offs last season and now the Dragons sit outside the top six this year.
The 40-0 loss to St Helens marked the low point of the season with the defeat coming on the back of the club’s Challenge Cup exit. Pundit Kyle Amor suggested that Steve McNamara was under pressure during the commentary and McNamara was asked about his standing at the club post-match.
Quizzed on the contact he had from owner Bernard Guasch, who called for the club to “change habits” at the end of 2024, McNamara hit back at the follow-up over whether he had the Frenchman’s “100% support”.
The Catalans boss said: “You’ll have to ask Bernard but Bernard’s support has always been outstanding and he’s a passionate man. He’s been a superb support for himself, for the team, for the staff throughout this period and I’m sure he will be going forward.”
On the follow-up he responded: “I don’t know where you’re going with the question. I don’t know, like I just answered the question, Bernard has shown great support and he’s been awesome for us.”
Catalans Dragons made it “nearly impossible” with errors
It wasn’t a pretty display from the Dragons with their slow start marking the start of their downfall but errors compounding it. Trailing 12-0 after just eight minutes, Catalans began to make sloppy mistakes including five at the play the ball in the first half, something Steve McNamara conceded that he could not believe.
Speaking on the performance, he assessed: “When you start the way we started, conceding two tries early, when you start like that it’s difficult.
“When you complete at less than 70% it’s difficult and when you give five penalties away when you’re playing the ball, then it makes it difficult.
“I think we had 17 less sets than them because of that and because of some of the infringements we made. (When you do that), you get that. You get what you get.”
Backing up from a Challenge Cup defeat was always going to be tough, especially when the opponents had a week off, but McNamara explained that his side made it “nearly impossible” for themselves with their error-strewn ways.
He said: “We came ready to play, it was obviously difficult with the schedules but to do that to ourselves in that game makes it nearly impossible and we ended up with a 40-0 scoreline.
“I said at half-time that I thought it was just the start and the end of the half, in the middle we were in the fight. I thought our contact was great, I thought the middles actually made some really good contacts.
“I thought we had some horrible decisions from our edge defence, horrible, and they cost you points against a quick team like Saints.”
Has the pressure “heightened” for Steve McNamara?
McNamara was also asked about the pressure of the job and whether it was “heightened”, something he batted away as he outlined the plan before the take on Wigan Warriors in Round 12.
He responded: “No, I feel like we’ve come off a really tough schedule right now and we’ve got some things horribly, horribly wrong tonight. We need to get a bit of rest really to start with, get back to France and get a little bit of rest there.
“We’ve obviously got a bit of time now between now and the next game, regroup and get ready to go again. We’ve clearly got a lot of our senior players not available right now and some of our young boys are coming in and doing a good job but just not quite good enough clearly tonight.
“We’re going to have to lick our wounds on this one. It’s been a tough schedule but we’ll get up and go again.”
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Catalans with Hull FC, Hull KR and Leigh Leopards next up after Wigan Warriors.
.@Saints1890 nil the Dragons 👏#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/lkqgJmmvL5
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) May 15, 2025
Jay
May 16, 2025 at 9:24 am
I switched off after 15 minutes. It was boring, fine for the home fans, but there was much better TV to watch! One-sided games are not good TV! NRL is much better, disappointing that Sky seems to have stopped Thursday and Friday matches coverage, why?