{"id":639246,"date":"2026-06-15T04:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T04:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639246\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T04:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T04:10:14","slug":"catalans-dragons-boss-explains-second-half-stumble-as-side-narrowly-avoid-defeat-to-castleford-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639246\/","title":{"rendered":"Catalans Dragons boss explains second-half stumble as side narrowly avoid defeat to Castleford Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Catalans Dragons boss John Cartwright has put his side\u2019s poor second half against Castleford Tigers down to the heat, as they narrowly avoided a collapse.<\/p>\n

After being 34-12 up with 20 minutes to go, Castleford brought the game back to 34-28 thanks to tries from Joe Stimson and two from Krystian Mapapalangi.<\/p>\n

Ryan Carr\u2019s men couldn\u2019t quite pull off the comeback, but it certainly provided the French side with a scare after being in total control in terms of the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Solomona Faataape and Tommy Makinson both crossed for try doubles, whilst Toby Sexton and Franck Maria also dotted down for the hosts.<\/p>\n

Assessing the game post-match, Cartwright said to Sky Sports: \u201cIt\u2019s a hard one. I\u2019m sat up there in an air-conditioned box, and sometimes, the conditions, you forget about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust makes you feel for the players from both sides, and they\u2019ve both said it was really oppressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll just put those lapses in defence and the last 20 minutes down to the heat, because we came up with some plays there that you don\u2019t want to see in your team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll focus on the positives. I thought the halves got us around the park really well early. They controlled the game. We looked dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last 20 minutes, was just some soft tries you don\u2019t like to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The left edge in particular proved fruitful, with four tries total from Makinson and Faataape doing the game. Cartwright has praised his side\u2019s attack, with the boss believing that, with the ball, they are able to compete with most of the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can score points, that won\u2019t be an issue, I\u2019m pretty sure,\u201d he said. \u201cI really like what I see from Doddy [Lewis Dodd].<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve only been here a limited time, and I\u2019m still getting to know the players and their attributes and habits and that type of thing, but I think our spine, we can compete with anyone and we\u2019ll score points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Arthur commits to Leeds Rhinos, Hull KR lose back-to-back and Captain\u2019s Challenge rule debated \u2013 Click here to listen to this week\u2019s episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

John Cartwright addresses Catalans Dragons switch<\/p>\n

With three games now under his belt, former Hull FC boss Cartwright has revealed what the move to Perpignan has been like, and it\u2019s fair to say he is loving life so far.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s been enjoyable through the people. It\u2019s always about the people, and it\u2019s been really enjoyable through the staff here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players have made me feel very welcome. They\u2019re a really good, hard-working group of lads; they\u2019re bonded pretty tight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that type of club where if you work on it, you can form really tight bonds. We\u2019ve got players from Australia, England, the islands, we\u2019ve got French players, so it\u2019s a great opportunity to galvanise as a group.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we play away, it\u2019s a bit of a hassle to get there, but you\u2019ve got to use those things as a positive and use it as a way for your group to connect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catalans Dragons boss John Cartwright has put his side\u2019s poor second half against Castleford Tigers down to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-639246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}