Wakefield Trinity 22 Catalans 42: Kear blasts Wakefield after they suffer Cup hangover

The Wildcats failed to bounce back from their extra-time defeat to local rivals Castleford in the Carnegie Challenge Cup, despite Glen Johnson giving them an early lead.

Their French opponents rallied from the early setback and they never looked back once Frederic Vaccari opened their account for the first of two tries.

Fellow winger and former Wildcat Damien Blanch also touched down twice as Catalan claimed an eight-try rout.

An unimpressed Kear said: “I think that’s one of our worst performances all season.

“The things that we’ve been renowned for doing earlier in the season – where we showed attitude and a real commitment to defence – there wasn’t that today.

“I know people will say it may be the emotional reaction to last week and I thought we felt sorry for ourselves this week.

“By feeling sorry for ourselves and listening to what everybody’s said and how unlucky we were etc., it may have just affected us in this game.

“I think that’s the poorest we’ve been with regard to our commitment to the 80 minutes all season.

“We went out there and got a soft-ish try from a Catalan mistake early on and we seemed to be comfortable and the Dragons got an urgency pill from that and we started making errors.

“We just gifted them possession, we also gave some soft penalties away, which gifted them field position.

“When you’ve got Clint Greenshields, who I thought was magnificent today, he cut us wide open on the edges.”

Wakefield’s other tries came from Matthew Wildie, Frankie Mariano and Tyrone McCarthy, Josh Veivers kicking three conversions.

Kear’s opposite number Trent Robinson was also impressed with Greenshields’s performance after he returned to action for the first time in two months following a dislocated elbow. “I thought he was outstanding,” said Robinson.

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: Veivers, Morton, Dean, Murphy, G. Johnson, Lee, Wildie, Korkidas, Davey, P. Johnson, Morrison, Henderson, Howarth. Substitutes: Higgins, Amor, Mariano, McCarthy.

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

Referee: T Roby (RFL).