CATALANS DRAGONS went down 24-18 to Castleford Tigers this afternoon at The Jungle in a pulsating affair.
The Dragons trailed 18-6 at half-time before rallying to level at 18-18. However, the Tigers ensured victory through a late Tex Hoy effort.
For Catalans boss Steve McNamara, he was disappointed with the result and some “unacceptable” aspects of the defeat: “I’m disappointed, it was a poor start going 18-0 down, it’s been unlike us we have had good starts for the majority of the season,” McNamara said.
“We fought ourselves back to 18-18 and that was the only positive. The last 12 minutes we were terrible and we blew a game that we should have won in the last 12 minutes.
“You give yourself a mountain to climb and give the opposition a lead like that, you make it hard for yourself. It was unacceptable how we finished at the end of the game.
“It was a massive disappointment defensively in the first-half and then second-half I thought we were good with the ball so there were two contrasting bits.
“Some of the errors we made to concede tries was unacceptable and then errors at the back end of the game were also unacceptable.
“It’s 100 per cent an opportunity missed.”
McNamara also gave an update on Tom Johnstone, who had to leave the field with injury at the end of the first-half.
“Tom Johnstone is sore and had to come off so we will get that checked out. Paul Seguier also got a big whack on his cheekbone and had a massive split there.”
There was also a debutant for the Dragons in the shape of Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet – and McNamara was full of praise for the young Frenchman.
“I thought Guillermo did really well, I’m not really sure what his best position is yet. I thought he did a really good job in the second-half and helped us get back in the game.”
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