Catalans Dragons 30 Wakefield Trinity 23: Kear looking for Wildcats to drag themselves out of worrying slump

WAKEFIELD Trinity coach John Kear pin-pointed Sebastien Raguin's try five minutes before half-time as the defining moment of his team's 30-23 defeat by Catalans Dragons.

Raguin crossed five minutes before half-time to cut the Wildcats' lead to eight points – and the French side completed their comeback after the break.

Kear said afterwards: "We looked okay in the first half, especially at 18-4 – but I thought that the try that got them back into the game just before half- time was crucial.

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"Rather than having a 14-point lead, we had an eight-point lead and that helped them psychologically.

"In the second half we scored early again and we seemed to play 'dilly-dally' football that allowed them back into the game."

Wakefield have won just one of their last nine league games and Kear added: "We're in a bit of a hole at the moment and we need to get out of it sooner rather than later."

Catalans coach Kevin Walters put the win down to returning players and a boost in confidence from the narrow defeat at Castleford Tigers on Tuesday.

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"It's been a long time between drinks, so to speak," he said.

"I thought against Castleford we turned a few corners, we were much better there. We scored equal tries with the Tigers and it ended up being goal-kicks that beat us.

"With Clint Greenshields back I thought he might just be the little difference that we needed and all the other guys really rallied around him. Certainly having him and Casey McGuire back helped us and really helped the structure of the team in the way that we played the game.

"I'm very happy, it's only our third win in the league, and it's been a long season."

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Catalans Dragons: Greenshields, Bell, Raguin, Sa, Pelo, Bosc, Sherwin, Ferriol, McGuire, Guisset, Elima, Mounis, Johnson. Substitutes: Gossard, Carlaw, Casty, Vaccari.

Wakefield Trinity: Blaymire, Blanch, Demetriou, Murphy, George, Cooke, Jeffries, King, Obst, Korkidas, Henderson, Johnson, Morrison. Substitutes: Moore, Kirmond, Leo-Latu, Rinaldi.

Referee: Ben Thaler (Wakefield).