Catalans Dragons came up narrowly short in their quest to win the Superleague Grand Final.
After surviving early pressure from the defending champions, St Helens, the Catalan side struck first through a Jimmy Maloney penalty.
Some juggling in goal from Kevin Naiqama saw us behind at the break before Mike McMeeken gave us a narrow lead which we defending until late on when the Fijian crossed again. He was injured in the act of scoring.
There was a couple of controversial moments. Fouad Yaha looked like scoring before being taken out by Tommy Makinson and in our last attack Sam Tomkins was penalised for an incorrect play the ball. Harsh when you consider he was in a head lock at the time.
It could and maybe should have been a 2 point chance for Maloney and who knows where extra time would have taken us?
When the dust settles we will review the season in detail.
But for now we have the terrible prospect of LMS gloating in his column! You don't like us Louie and we don't like you !
...from the Grand Final is one of pride in my team.
However.
And this is a big rant coming.
The utter nonsense posted on the internet since the game has left me feeling like my love of this game is hanging by a thread, and a thin one at that.
To expect Catalans fans to sell out half of Old Trafford with a weeks notice is ridiculous. Throw in Covid protocols, increased fares due to fuel costs and a whole host of other reasons that would have impacted the crowd from so-called heartlands clubs and you have borderline xenophobia going on here.
I have said it before but it bears repeating.
I am born and raised in the south of England and got into the game through my Father-in-Law owning a home near the Stade Gilbert Brutus. I try and extoll the virtues of the game at every opportunity playing touch in my home area and pushing a Catalans agenda whenever and wherever I can.
Do I feel part of the wider rugby league family?
Sometimes.
But not at the moment. I feel like the likes of me and my club are not welcome in the UK and that the Superleague owners and fans would much prefer both Dracs and Toulouse to do a Toronto and vanish without trace.
The sport is fantastic. Make no mistake about that.
The governance and some of the attitudes around it are not first class, nowhere near.
There are things in the game that were Dragons fault. Signing Israel Folau for example. Bernard throwing his toys out of the pram about officials regularly (including this weekend), and some of the teams poor performances away to the likes of Leeds, Warrington and especially Wigan over the years.
But I found myself typing on Facebook in response to a troll that I was more looking forward to the domestic Elite 1 competition (coming this weekend) more than the Grand Final based on the abuse I knew that was coming our way.
That is a scandalous position to find myself in. This should have been the pinnacle of my Dragons watching career.
Notice I have deliberately not mentioned officials. In the past I subscribed to the theory that we would get reffed out of the big tournament finals but having "let" us get to Old Trafford there was no point in rigging the game then.
The Hull KR match would have been nobbled were that to be the case.
For me the officials have a difficult job and make mistakes from time to time. So do players and so do club officials. So no blame from here there.
So where do I go from here?
I am going to spend the winter following St Esteve and hope that the lack of UK based internet crowd experts offering their stuffy self centred opinions might calm me down and get my love of the game back where it should be.
Catalans Dragons are in their first Super League Grand final after beating Hull KR in a thrilling semi final at a packed Stade Gilbert Brutus.
The game breaker was the second try scored by Josh Drinkwater who took us from defending our final third to over the oppositions line with a turn of speed I never knew he possessed !
I suppose you find another gear against you old club perhaps.
Hull were brilliant on the night, refusing to give up hope and kept us honest until the hooter.
But the Dracs will make their first visit to Old Trafford to face St Helens who beat Leeds in the other match.
Super League Dream Team:Sam Tomkins (Catalans Dragons), Tom Davies (Catalans Dragons), Jack Welsby (St Helens), Mark Percival (St Helens), Ken Sio (Salford Red Devils), Jonny Lomax (St Helens), James Maloney (Catalans Dragons), Alex Walmsley (St Helens), Kruise Leeming (Leeds Rhinos), Sam Kasiano (Catalans Dragons), Liam Farrell (Wigan Warriors), Kane Linnett (Hull KR), Morgan Knowles (St Helens).
Many congratualtions to our players who made the 2021 Dream Team.
As delighted as I am that Catalans won the hub cap, the comedown has centered on whether its actually good for the game or not.
On the night we were given the shield social media was lit with people wondering why the games UK based administrators weren't engaging in the level of Tweets and Instagram posts that they would have if Leeds, Wigan or St Helens had won the division.
Whether it was a trick of the camera or not, Ken Davy's face has become the iconic image of the Dragons Magic Weekend comeback and securing of league leadership.
The latest proposals from former Northampton RLFC supremo Ralph Rimmer has focused on the UK and its M62 based clubs with Catalan Media reporting that no French based journalists were briefed or invited to this presentation of the games future.
The Leigh owner Derek Beaumont is desperately trying to save his club with a bid to prevent Toulouse getting promoted to add more colour and a credible derby for Catalans (sorry London!) in the top division.
The world feels like its against us at the moment and with murmurings already about the likely loss of revenue from an Old Trafford Grand Final featuring our club, cynical James is expecting us to get refereed out of the play offs.
We have won the league leaders shield along with the Challenge Cup but that's enough now and boardrooms across the North of England will be holding meetings to ensure that we go no further with our inroads in the Super League. It sounds fanciful but this is rugby league.
So as much as I am loving life as a Catalans fan at the moment, I have genuine and grave fears for the future of the game and its current set up.
In fact this season I have watched way more NRL than Superleague along with the ERDS touch rugby series that a number of people I train and play with have been involved in.
There are a lot of questions and not many answers in the public domain at the moment so I would like to call on the RFL and Superleague to get their backsides in motion and start to share that masterplan.
They will also need to be humble enough to take feedback from other key stakeholders in the game and show the sort of agility that businesses in the UK have had to during the pandemic.
It was a case of after the Lord Mayors show as Catalans were beaten at home on the night the League Leaders Shield was presented.
With a few rotations to the team there was still a great start for the home club who roared into a two score lead backed by jubilant fans.
But the visitors wouldn't go away and were only 18-12 adrift at the interval.
The Catalans did not score in the second half whilst the visitors went over three more times to get a 30-18 win.
Well done to them.
The evening was dampened but not destroyed as the club presented former players like Remi Casty and Greg Bird who had left the club during lockdown before getting their hands on the silverware.
Naturally there will be fans of other clubs in the Superleague who find great amusement in the fact we are celebrating this as an achievement, but with last rites being read to a game on its arse by some, we can be part of the solution for rugby league and not the problem.
Dragons Catalans (18) 0
T : Matt Whitley 2, Matthieu Laguerre
G : James Maloney 3
Huddersfield Giants (12) 0
T : Josh Jones, Louis Senior, Jack Cogger, Olly Ashall-Bott, Matthew English
