Catalan Dragons 54 Castleford Tigers 20: Matterson calls for Tigers unity after 10-try loss

The hosts ran in 10 tries at the Stade Gilbert Brutus to secure a comprehensive victory and leave Matterson despondent.

He said: “We’ve had a pretty good record down here in the past, but we’ve come up against a very strong Catalan side and we weren’t good enough in every area tonight.

“The result is what it is, but I’m more disappointed in the way we performed.

“They had a big bench tonight and I thought if we held the ball better than we did then we could have used that to our advantage but we’ve struggled in the heat more than them tonight.

“But let’s not blame the heat. The bottom line is we were soft and that is disappointing after the last two weeks.”

Matterson was unable to find a positive to take back to England, but urged his side to stick together and learn from the loss.

He continued: “They targeted Rangi (Chase) down our left side, but then they targeted our right side after and they were very good tonight.

“It’s disappointing that I’m struggling to find a positive from tonight’s game, but it’s important that we stick together. We’ve been down this track before and we need to bounce back.”

Steve Menzies, Lopini Paea, Damien Blanch, Scott Dureau and Clint Greenshields all crossed for the home side in the first half while Jason Baitieri, Frederic Vaccari (two), Jean-Philippe Baile and Paea again added further scores after the break.

Richard Owen (2), Dean Widders and Richie Mathers replied for Tigers Kirk Dixon landing two of the four conversion attempts.

Catalan boss Trent Robinson was understandably delighted with not only the result but his players’ performance.

“It’s nice to do that to a team,” he said.

Robinson also mentioned Blanch’s length-of-the-field effort that brought the house down and involved seven players. “That was outstanding to move the ball and come up with that space and timing was superb,” he said.

Catalan Dragons: Greenshields, Blanch, Baile, Millard, Vaccari, Sa, Dureau, Ferriol, Henderson, Fakir, Menzies, Paea, Mounis. Substitutes: Casty, Simon, Baitieri, Pelissier.

Castleford: Mathers, Dixon, Arundel, Thompson, Owen, Chase, Orr, Jackson, Hudson, Emmitt, Ferres, Snitch, McGoldrick. Substitutes: Fozzard, Massey, Widders, Clark.

Referee: T Alibert (Toulouse).