Catalans Dragons boss Steve McNamara makes Super League play-off claim as he bemoans officiating

Fifth-placed Catalans have now lost three of their past four games and could drop to sixth spot if Salford Red Devils beat Huddersfield Giants on Saturday.

Arthur Romano gave Catalans an early lead and Arthur Mourgue’s goal sent them into the break 6-0 up but it was a different story after the break with David Fusitu’a, Matt Frawley and Lachie Miller going over to give the Rhinos victory.

McNamara, though, has refuted any question of concern over his side’s play-off aspirations.

“If we keep improving like that, we’ll be fine,” he said.

“We’re in the position where we’ve got the advantage. Regardless of whether Leigh win at the weekend, we’re in front of those. We’re in the six.

“And if we win games we’ll stay in the six – simple as that. This week was a huge concern, based on the amount of available players and those who could have dropped out, it was a massive concern.

“But I can’t believe how well they came together today and put that effort in. We’ll have to patch them up this week but I’m not concerned.

“We’re in a strong position, we’re a strong club, we’ve got good players and we’ll keep going and put ourselves in the play-offs at the end of the year.”

McNamara bemoaned his side being on the wrong side of a 5-3 penalty count against Leeds and receiving no Six Again calls.

“We got one penalty in the second half, that’s two games running now,” he said.

“We didn’t get a penalty in the second half until there was 11 seconds to go.

“I will speak to the officials after this. I generally don’t do it… Leeds were good in the second half, but that’s two weeks running we’ve not had more than one penalty or Six Again in the whole second half of games.”