Walters happy with result

Dixon: Too high a mountain to climb

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After watching his Catalans Dragons side grind their way to a 30-18 Super League win at Celtic Crusaders, coach Kevin Walters admitted he was much happier with the result than the actual performance.

The Dragons scored six tries at Brewery Field, four of them coming in a dominant first half. They eased away once more late in the match, but only after the Crusaders pulled to within four points.

It was the Dragons' first victory in four Super League attempts, and head coach Walters said: "It was a scrappy game and not the best of matches this year but I'm just happy we won.

"We have been struggling for wins this year as have Celtic and that was always the way it was going to be today. Fortunately for us, we finished in front."

Catalans were 22-6 ahead at half-time, but as Walters also admitted: "You are never safe with the Dragons given our form this year. Celtic were always trying to finish strongly.

"Their first half was not quite as good but their second half showed how they can be."

Springboard

Meanwhile, one week after their first win in the top flight against Bradford, Crusaders head coach John Dixon was left ruing their failure to score a second straight success.

Needing a converted try to take the lead in the second half, home fans thought they were on their way then Mark Bryant crossed.

However, he failed to ground the ball and the Dragons pulled away once more with two late tries.

"The players thought, at half-time, that they gave a good account of themselves," said the Australian coach.

"They probably left themselves a mountain which was too high to climb and, in the end, we saw Mark Bryant going over (when they were 22-18 behind) and that would have put us two points in front but the ball popped out.

"That would have been a really good springboard for something but 16 points behind at half-time was too big a hurdle.

"You have always got to acknowledge the quality of the opposition, but sometimes you have to look hard at yourselves and ask 'could you have done better?'

"Collectively, we knew we should have done better in that first half.

"We were pretty good getting out of trouble and getting to the halfway line but we were not really patient enough or good enough," he added.

"We scored a nice early try and thought we could get a result but we didn't attack their line in the first half."