JOHN CARTWRIGHT bemoaned the stop-start nature of Catalans Dragons’ 18-16 win over Toulouse Olympique.

The match took more than two hours to complete after numerous captain’s challenges, penalties and other stoppages, combined with technical difficulties that were blamed on the torrential rain.

“What do you say?” said Cartwright. “There were so many stoppages, so many penalties.

“They were horrible conditions, the wet, the rain, all that stuff.

“I felt sorry for the players and I felt sorry for the crowd in the end. It just seemed to go forever.

“It’s so hard to attack. The game is so stop-start. There’s no fatigue at all in the defensive lines.

“it’s impossible to play football under those conditions.”

His Toulouse counterpart Sylvain Houles was also unhappy.

“In the first half we wasted some opportunities and some decisions went against us, plus the conditions were difficult,” he said.

“But we came back well and the players showed up later in the game.

“The conditions plus injuries were a big factor for the first half. You have to know how to handle these conditions and we improved as the game went on.

“We would have liked to finish off July in the perfect way but the game was not played in the way we would have preferred. But we’ve had a great season so far and we’ll carry on improving.

“We wanted to win in front of our fans but we will go to Leeds, not just to make up the numbers but to win. Today we kept on going to the end, we were together as a team and the team spirit is very positive.”