: Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:55 am
If I had to think up the most infuriating sequence of events that could be crammed into 80 minutes to really p*** me off it wouldn't be far different to last night. If the game had lasted another five minutes I'm sure we'd have won, but it was too little too late.
From the moment Will Sharp gifted them a comedy first try, somehow throwing the ball straight to an opponent as he was running it back upfield (I think it just slipped right out of his hand as he attempted to swerve a tackle) we looked clueless and it was a relief to reach half time only ten points adrift.
We looked fired up at the start of the second half but couldn't make the early breakthough and they scored the next try to make the game look safe for them. By the time it was 12-28 with around ten minutes left we suddenly woke up and cut out the mistakes. Louie scored a superb try, barging through several tackles, Melling got another after Dorn had been crudely fouled on a counter attack without the referee giving a penalty, then we could even have won it on the last play of the game when Melling(?) broke clear after the hooter but was closed out on the left wing.
I wasn't at all happy with the referee; his entire performance was erratic and inconsistent and their second and third tries came off the back of debatable penalties abetted by flimsy defending; their lying on and offside infringements were largely ignored as was the crude foul on Dorn in the build up to the final try, and some very strange decisions went against us. However, our handling was shocking; the number of unforced errors especially in attacking situations drove me to dispair. Catalans did outplay us for periods, forcing a huge number of goalline dropouts, but when we finally got our act together we made them look extremely ordinary and, all else being equal, would have actually beaten them without needing to play any better but for that bizarre first try that gifted them a head start.
