Steve McNamara slammed Catalans’ performance after being on the receiving end of a 40-12 hammering at Widnes.
The former England head coach was furious with his side’s discipline after conceding 15 penalties in the defeat. Sam Moa was also sin-binned after 11 minutes, and although the Dragons went into half-time level, McNamara attributed their second-half defeat to their first-half ill-discipline.
When asked if he was surprised by his side’s collapse, he said: “Yeah, I was. I thought we looked like a team in the first half, but to then get our backsides kicked in the fashion we did is just not good enough.
“We had ten sets with the ball in the second half – and in the first 15 minutes of that half, we had the ball three times. We paid the price for pure lack of discipline in terms of penalties.
“In the first half I thought we dealt with it well, but we paid the price for some appalling tackling and we continued to give penalties away.”
He continued: “We thought we’d gone some way to fixing that (ill-discipline) up at the end of last year. It’s something we’ll need to address.”
One positive was the performance of Michael McIlorum, who was making his debut for the Dragons.
“I thought he was outstanding,” said McNamara.
“He showed us the way to go. He was tough, tenacious and everything we knew he would be.
“He put his body on the line on numerous occasions and he set the standard for the rest of the group.”
