St Helens 48-2 Catalans Dragons

 

Thanks for all the praise but it’s no consolation right now. 

Dragons folded when they needed to show a backbone the most. 

It was one of those performances that we have consistently shown on the road throughout our history. 

Nothing in attack, ill disciplined and weak at the back. 

The coach, who has been much criticised on this page over the years looked hurt. Not upset, not angry but hurt. 

He had put a team of players many of whom are equal or better than those of St Helens out on the field and they didn’t perform. 

We can point to the travel and the rapidly emerging stories about financial issues as potentially mitigating factors, but the cold hard truth is that you can keep replacing the players every year as much as you want but there is something inherent in the clubs DNA that means they don’t consistently have the mental toughness to win matches of this nature. 

The odd win here or there is now no longer enough for this team. 

It’s not fair on Bernard Guasch who continues to invest money in the team and in managing the logistical challenge of getting to England and back all the time. 

And, despite my reservations about his style of play, its not fair on Steve McNamara. 

He looks like he has no idea how to solve this issue and my level of respect for the guy rocketed after he refused to bow to the Sky interviewer’s desperation for him to blame the RFL suspension panel for the loss. 

My understanding is that in not taking the Toronto route out of the season and trying to keep Superleague honest we might have to try and offload some of the bigger earners at the club to try and make it through 2021 in whatever format the season happens. 

It was interesting to see the pundits on TV Friday saying that there should be some form of compensation coming our way to offset a lot of the cost of private jets. I agree that there should be a plan to help Dragons over the winter and I look forward to seeing what Robert Elstone has to offer. 

In the meantime, let’s head to the beach and see what happens over the next few weeks. It’s a well-deserved break after this most unusual of seasons.