Steve McNamara praises Catalans Dragons' 'ruthless' display against Wigan Warriors

Matty Peet’s side were on the end of a 46-22 Magic Weekend defeat at St James’ Park.

Tom Johnstone was among the scorers for the Dragons, with the winger going over for a hat-trick.

“What Magic does is give that feel of a big game,” McNamara said.

“You prepare differently for this type of match, particularly against a team like Wigan.

“We knew the importance of the game.

“It was great practice for us to prepare and win big games.

“For 65 minutes we were really ruthless, but the last 15 minutes gave us a reminder that if you don’t get those basics right then these teams can come back and score.

“We won’t dwell on that too much at this stage because of the standard of performance we put out before that.

"This is a game we can go back to.

"The Warrington game in the Challenge Cup is the same, as it was knockout rugby.

"We conceded try against them to go out of the competition, we conceded one today in the last few seconds, so there’s some real lessons there and improvements we have to make if we want to give ourselves a chance of winning it.”

The result moves Catalans above the Warriors in the Super League table, with Peet’s side slipping down to third.

Wigan’s next outing comes against St Helens at the Totally Wicked Stadium on Friday night, while the Dragons are back at home against Hull KR on Saturday.