Steve McNamara marks Catalans Dragons ‘disengaged’ and ‘out of sync’ despite Leeds Rhinos win – Total Rugby League

CATALANS coach Steve McNamara will use this weekend’s break from the Challenge Cup semi-finals to put his ‘disunited Dragons’ back together.

Despite a 26-0 win over Leeds in Perpignan on Saturday night which saw Les Dracs back at the top of the Super League table, McNamara believes there is still plenty of improvement to come from his “disconnected” side.

He said after the win at Leeds: “I’m really happy, I scored a couple of tries at the end there and at 26-0 the score looks good, but we’re in the dressing room there and there’s an element of frustration. the amount of improvement we know we have in us and that’s a great sign.

“Looking at our recent performances, we have shown that we are a very tough team, we show up to play every week, but there are parts of our game that need to be analyzed and redefined.

“We have to get in sync in those areas. Although I am happy with such a victory, it is good that the players do not get carried away by it. They realize there is still a lot of work to do.

“Now we have a natural break, a week off and we will use this time wisely, we will come back with many players who have been missing for us. We’ve put ourselves in a decent competitive position at this stage of the year without playing to our full potential.”

McNamara is looking for more consistency following three shock defeats against Huddersfield, Wigan and Leigh, adding: “We’ve shown some moments in certain games but we haven’t consistently played at our best. We showed against Hull KR and St Helens that when we are at our best we are very good but we are a bit off the pace at times.

“We’re out of sync with each other and we look a bit disjointed, but we’re eleven games into the season and we’re at the top of the competition. With a new team and the injuries we’ve had and everything thrown at us, we’re fine.

“We were a bit tight and strained after some defeats, but we limited the opposition to nil, so half of our game is good and the other half we need to work on.

“We were disappointed with the attack in the last two weeks as well as the points conceded, we had a tough time with a lot of fatigue and I’m very proud of the players.

“We don’t always get it right and there are always things to improve on and we can get a lot better than we were tonight.”

McNamara hopes to return to fitness for a number of senior players during the cup break but revealed injury concerns over Jayden Nikorim following the Leeds game.

He said: “Jayden is probably our biggest worry tonight, he’s got a couple of leg injuries and we’ll need a good look at him, but we’ve got a few players ready to come back.

“Mike McMeeken looked hurt, he got a knock on the hand but he was able to carry on. We have time now to have a good look at them and put the team back together.”

First published in League Express Newspaper Issue 3,430 (13 May 2024)

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