Wigan Warriors coach Matt Peet has seen red following the dismissal of his prop-forward Kaide Ellis during Saturday night’s 28-0 defeat in Perpignan.
Peet was bitterly disappointed with his side’s performance at a rain-soaked Stade Gilbert Brutus and the late sending-off only added to his pain.
Ellis was dismissed alongside Catalans’ prop Jordan Dezaria by referee Robert Hicks following a 69th-minute fight and both players are expected to pick up suspensions this week.
The Warriors’ coach told League Express, “I don’t like the red card we conceded at the end of the game; we need to learn from that; it won’t be tolerated.
“We’ve been told that punching is a minimum of a three-match ban, so if he (Ellis) gets three it’s deserved and there is no excuse.
“We’ll take it in our stride, the punishment was equal but it does put a lot of stress on squads and players.”
Wigan slipped and slid to a comprehensive defeat in wet conditions against the Dragons with a series of handling errors littering the game.
Peet said, “It was bad for both sides but we need to be much better than that.
“We’re very disappointed. We were given a lesson in how to play wet weather Rugby League by Catalans and I thought they kicked and completed much better than we did.
“We were in double figures for errors and we didn’t kick well either, so we never gave ourselves a chance.
“We learned lessons and we learnt some more against Toulouse last week. We’ve not been good enough across the two games.
“We’re learning where we are at as a group and it’s important that we stick together.
“We will attack the next stage of the season, but on the whole during this trip (the Warriors stayed in France for both fixtures) we haven’t performed well enough.”
Peet is resigned to losing Ellis to suspension this week but reported no injury problems from the Catalans game as he prepares for Thursday night’s televised match against Castleford Tigers.
Wigan’s five-match unbeaten run was ended in Perpignan and the Wigan coach is keen to get back on track.
He said, “We’ll find out we’re we are at from performances like these and I’m looking forward to Thursday night, Castleford are a good team and we need to get home and put in a much-improved performance.
“It’s our first real bump in the road but we were always aware it wasn’t going to be a straightforward season from start to finish.
“There are times when you get tested and Catalans away in pouring down rain is obviously going to be difficult but we will find out a lot about ourselves in how we react to it and how we stick together and stick to our processes.
“We don’t have to start doubting everything that we are doing, just get better at it.”
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