CATALANS face an unpredictable opponent in Leeds this Saturday in what is a must-win match for the home team at Stade Gilbert Brutus.
French supporters are growing uneasy at a miserable start to Super League, with three straight losses, the worst one coming at Leigh Sports Village on Friday night in a humbling 34-6 defeat to the Leopards.
Coach Steve McNamara was left scratching his head at yet another mistake-ridden and undisciplined display from Les Dracs, in similar style to the opening round shock home defeat to Hull.
The Dragons’ social media accounts were flooded with complaints from followers anxious at the re-jigged team’s inability to win games, despite significant expenditure on headline new recruits for 2025 and concerned about the prospect of facing a Rhinos team with two wins from three.
McNamara is refusing to press the panic button just yet, pointing towards the contrast between his side’s early-season form last year (when they led the league briefly then tumbled from play-off contention after a mid-season slump) and this term.
He told League Express, “We’re three games in. We won seven from eight at the start of last season and we weren’t talking big about how we’re going to this and that, and there will be no panic in terms of our current situation although we’re clearly disappointed.
“We need to get back on track really quickly and hopefully that will be as soon as next week.”
McNamara paid credit to the Leopards then immediately turned to his own team’s deficiencies, adding, “I’m not surprised how well Leigh played tonight, but I am surprised at us. We knew what Leigh would bring but we were a million miles from where our performance was at last week (a 18-12 defeat against Warrington).
“You can accept defeat when you turn up like we did in the previous game but we looked a completely different team from last week. Yes, we had a couple of changes which probably damaged us slightly but they beat us to the punch in nearly every area tonight and that was a really tough game to take for us as a team.
“You can’t let your standards drop so severely within seven days. And the reason for that is down to us as a group, as a team, and we have to take responsibility for that.
“Credit to Leigh they did a great job and they have had a strong start to their season. I’m still really confident in our team and our ability although based upon what we saw tonight you wouldn’t think so. We will be a very good team this year but tonight we were so poor in so many areas, discipline was probably the worst one and that sucked us of any energy that we had.
“We cannot afford to turn up against Leeds in the same frame of mind, we know that right now, and it will be vigorously enforced as we prepare for this weekend’s game.”