A team may win but it does not mean that a coach will be happy, and for Catalan Dragons coach Laurent Frayssinous, that was the case – as he lamented the way his side started the game, as they went down 16-0 in quick succession.
Eager to see his side start well, Frayssinous admits he was left disappointed by the way his side started the game – though he was pleased with the team spirit and resolve his side showed to win.
“We didn’t play to the standard we expect of ourselves tonight, especially in the first 40 minutes,” Frayssinous said.
“At half-time everybody looked at each other in the eyes and said ‘that’s the standard and we don’t want to play at that standard any more’.
“In the second half we could see that the players wanted to improve themselves and the standard they played to.
“Our team-spirit and team ethic won us the game tonight, not the execution, not the show and go and not running good lines because we were not there with those tonight.”
For the Wildcats, their caused was not helped when they lost both Andy Raleigh and Frankie Mariano to injury, stretching their team for the clash – with coach Richard Agar also disappointed with some of the calls that went against his side.
“Just after half-time we were left with two replacements on the bench after losing Andy Raleigh and Frankie Mariano and that really hurt us,” he said.
“I thought our energy levels were extremely low and if you add a 12-3 penalty count against us to that as well, then it is no surprise that we were dead on our feet at the end of the game.”