UK Supporters Club survey result

Survey - update

Thanks to everyone who completed the Survey Monkey - here is a summary of the responses

80% of you attend up to 3 games a season in the UK and over 90% attend up to 3 games a season in Perpignan.

• Email was the most popular choice for keeping in touch but Facebook came in second so we will set up a Facebook Group.
• 72% of you choose to attend the games based upon how close they are to home.
• 80% want to buy merchandise from a UK outlet - I am pretty sure we can arrange this.
• 40% said that they were likely to take part in events arranged prior to matches.
• 43% said that they are likely to attend the Man of Steel event at the Lowry Theatre, Salford. I will get this organised to make tickets available.
• The most popular suggestions were - pre-game meet-ups and meet the player events.

More to follow... 

Owner sharpens his cleaver and tells press his trigger finger is poised...

Catalans owner Bernard Guasch has given Steve McNamara and the players three weeks to save their season and jobs after the latest humiliation over the weekend.

The Dragons folded yet again and saw their play off hopes take a serious, serious blow.

They were out of this one before half time as in-form Hull FC torn them apart with one of the displays of this Super League season.

Credit is due to the visitors; I don’t want my whinging about my team to dilute from the way they are performing in recent weeks.

However, we are a Dragons focused website and it’s their fortunes we follow most closely.

With the club making so much effort off the park with new commercial partners, the Camp Nou trip and forming a UK supporters club, this total loss of form could not have come at a worst possible time.

There is nothing more we can add. We have said it all over the previous weeks and the sentence we wrote about the coaches choosing Matty Smith over Josh Drinkwater being a decision that could define their future looks even more pertinent now.

Do we want to lose those next few matches to see the back of the coach?

Of course not. We want our team to win every game. So let’s see how this big matches pan out now…

Dragons capitulate again

Catalans Dragons (8) 12

T : Fouad Yaha 3
G :

London Broncos (12) 30

T : Jordan Abdull, Rhys Williams 2, Elliot Kear, Kieran Dixon
G : Kieran Dixon 5

Where to start with this one eh?

Pathetic capitulations away from home we have become accustomed to over the years, but we are now developing the habit of getting beaten convincingly at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.
For London read Salford, read Hull etc. etc.

The coach admitted to the press that he has no idea why after a week of good training and recovery followed by a decent pre-game warm up his team folded after their first error in possession.

The vultures are now circling for the Dragons with a number of pundits starting to predict an unravelling of our season, which aside from the cup last season fits in with previous recent campaigns.

Steve McNamara himself has asked how his players can go from looking world beaters at the Camp Nou to unfit, uncoordinated and mentally weak in the space of a month.

He needs to solve that one and quick, and whilst he is doing that he needs to get a plan in place to get Tony Gigot back to his form of last season rather than the ghost of a rugby player he is in this campaign.

His contract situation won’t be helping, but he is making mistakes at the back and proving less of an influence going forward.

Pundits are desperate to pile in on Matty Smith and choosing him over the retention of Josh Drinkwater could yet prove to be pivotal in the future of the Coach.

We seem adept at changing back room personnel, lest we forget the CEO left on the eve of the season and we have a massive shake up of coaches at the end of 2017, but nothing seems to change in the players mindset.

When they go behind they stay behind and goodness only knows what Jake Connor and Albert Kelly will do to us this weekend.

The players are still not the right ones, the positions they are playing in are not getting the best out of what we have available to us and I still wonder if this is the right coach. And I know you must be bored of reading that, because I am bored of writing it.

Change is needed.

Juniors lose final late on.

Ok, so the Catalans lost, but we are open minded enough to recognise a good match when we see one and would advise you to enjoy the highlights of this one.

Women lose final

Not the result we wanted but its been a decent season for the Goddesses and we look forward to supporting them going forward.

Reserves lose final

St Estève XIII Catalan (6) 6

T : Hugo Salabio
G : Joan Guasch

Carcassonne (10) 22

T : Bastien Escamilla, Garry Lo, Clément Soubeyras, Tony Tumusa
G : Alexis Alberola 3

Warrington hammer sorry Dragons

Warrington Wolves (12) 34

T : Daryl Clark, Blake Austin, Bryson Goodwin, Sitaleki Akauola, Josh Charnley
G : Declan Patton 7

Catalans Dragons (4) 4

T : Fouad Yaha
G :

Well it started well, you can say that for one thing. Although after that and especially the second half Dragons reverted to type by being swept away in Warrington.

You can watch the highlights for yourselves below but this is a post Camp Nou hangover that is turning into a slump and its interesting to see that the rugby league journalist community is beginning to ask questions of both the Dragons recruitment and coaching having seen them immune for the period we were defending the cup.

Matty Smith seems to be getting particular attention, but to expect him to come back after a year out and when you look back at the pre-season training photos, clearly not in match ready condition, what can you expect?

We've had the issues of where Sam Tomkins and Tony Gigot should play at the latter is worryingly a shadow of the Lance Todd winning player he was last season with rumours he is fluttering his goatee at the NRL refusing to go away.

The fact we are linked with a return for Morgan Escare adds credence to that rumour for me.

So where do we go from here?

Well finally a home match at the Stade Gilbert Brutus and with Steve McNamara having told the media we are homesick, nothing less than a win over London this weekend will do.

Join the #CatalanAssembly at Warrington

CATALANS DRAGONS are calling on UK-based support to sing them all the way to Old Trafford.

Les Dracs were dumped out of the Coral Challenge Cup last week at Hull and are now focusing all efforts on Super League success this season.

The club has identified a lack of support at away fixtures as a factor in their patchy away performances and have launched an initiative to stimulate and co-ordinate supporters.

Catalans traditionally brings few spectators to away games because of the cost to supporters of flights and accommodation on a regular basis throughout the season.

The club is conscious of the lack of support and the effect this can have on atmosphere at games, and also the team’s performances.

Coach Steve McNamara told Sang Et Or.com : “Any support we get in the UK is really appreciated. We understand that French fans cannot travel once a fortnight because the costs add up over a season.
“But over here in Perpignan we often see thousands of visiting fans because it’s a once-a-year trip. Their support is fantastic, vocal, it adds to the atmosphere at the game and can help lift the visiting team’s players.

“We’d like to have that kind of support when we play in the UK.”

“As players and coaches we are conscious of that lack of support. It can have an effect on games. We’ve seen how passionate and supportive the Catalans fans are in Perpignan and at Wembley and Camp Nou but we understand they cannot be there all of the time in the UK.

“If we can encourage a supporters group in the UK it would benefit everyone.”

Catalans have appointed a UK-based representative, Rugby League International Federation official and Super League Director Niel Wood
.
His role is to represent the club at all meetings in the UK and help t co-ordinate support for the Dragons.

He told Sang Et Or.com : “We have set up the framework for a UK Supporters Club based upon the fact that there were over 1200 people on the SL database who identified as a Dragons fan.

“We are working on channels of communication for these supporters and we intend to work with all the SL Clubs to get discounted offers for Dragons fans and to encourage them to congregate together at games - it already happens informally but it would be a powerful statement to have a regular group meeting together and having a presence in the stadium. Hopefully from there we can grow this to significant numbers.”

Yannick Rey, Dragons Media Manager, added: “We know we have fans in England and we want to try to co-ordinate them.
“We also have a small number of supporters who travel regularly, the objective is now to gather them to create a social bond. We feel this is very important, particularly for events such as the Magic Weekend or the Grand Final.”

Perpignan-based news agency Catalan Media has launched a #CatalanAssembly campaign to encourage supporters to attend Saturday’s Round 17 Super League clash at Warrington.
The game is televised live on Sky Sports and a spokesman for Catalan Media said: “We want to show people that it’s fun to be a Catalan fan, and you don’t have to live in France to support the club.
“We have secured a discount on tickets for Dragons supporters who will be assembling in Block Q at the Halliwell Jones.

“We’re encouraging everyone to wear blood and gold colours and sing the Catalan supporters’ songs.”

Women make the grand final

St Estève XIII Catalan (4) 18

T: Rakei, Bessalhi, Bussière, Musch
G: Akpa

Lyon (8) 14

T: Lecocq, 1 penalty try
G: Sekmakdji 3

It was tight at the end, but the Goddesses made it to the French league final over the weekend.

The final is against Toulouse at Stade Gilbert Brutus at the weekend.

Domestic joy as reserves get a win

St Estève XIII Catalan (12) 34

T : Bartès, Ambert, Bled, Martin, R. Franco 2
G : J. Guasch 5

Villeneuve (10) 22

T : Ugaia, Nikolic 2, Godinet
G : Godinet 3

After a tight first half, St Esteve got away in the second half to keep their place at the top of the table.

Hull put Dragons fire out...

There was an element of "told you so" with the Thursday night exit in the Challenge Cup.

Earlier in the day I had been in a discussion with someone connected with the club and expressed that I feared for us later.

My mindset was that we had the high of the Nou Camp and the high of Anfield, and that it might be a big ask for a Dragons side famed for its mental fragility to do it for a third match in a row.

Sadly I was proved right and despite a small revival after Hull's fast start, they raced away towards the end and embarrassed the Dragons.

We can talk about the holders wanting to make an impression on the league this season, but the facts were that two inconsistent sides played each other and fair play to Hull, they got it together better on the night.

Its a really sad end to our defence of the cup, but we have plenty of previous of getting hammered in Hull and until we get this away form sorted out, dreams of any sort of trophy are irrelevant.

Still, could be worse... could be Warrington next ! Gulp.

Hull FC (12) 51

T : Jake Connor, Bureta Faraimo, Sika Manu, Ratu Naulago 2, Albert Kelly, Jamie Shaul, Danny Houghton
G : Marc Sneyd 9
DG : Marc Sneyd

Catalans Dragons (8) 8

T : Lewis Tierney 2
G :
DG :