Winder delighted with Catalans triumph

The game was a real was a real war of attrition until the final quarter, when the Warriors cut loose with four tries that secured the spoils.

“I was really pleased with the result,” acknowledged Winder, taking charge in the absence of Shaun Wane, who remained at home in Wigan following hip surgery.

“For 60 minutes I thought it was a real arm-wrestle and it was a really tough game.

“Both sides were very competitive. We just stuck at it and got through that 60-minute mark, and things just started to open up for us.

“I thought we got what we deserved. We stuck with the process long enough, and we managed to snag a couple of tries before the momentum went with us at the end.”

Wigan’s win was even more impressive given the intense heat that made it tough for either side to stick to their game-plan.

“It was very tough, for both sides,” recognised Winder.” It was very hot out there and a really physical game.

“I thought the quality of the game was really high. The opening 15 minutes saw both teams complete in the high eighties and there weren’t a lot of errors.

“The game was played with plenty of intent and, at the end of the day, we just had to hang in there.”

Catalans head coach Steve McNamara admitted his side were disappointed with the margin of defeat at the end.

“I thought it was a really tough game,” he said. “It was a fantastic arm-wrestle for 60 to 65 minutes.

“There was not a lot to choose between the two teams - in fact I think we were two tries to one up.

“It was really pleasing we were in that contest, but really disappointed with the last 15 minutes.

“I don’t think we deserved that scoreline.

“Having said that, if you give Wigan those opportunities, they’ll take them - and that’s what they did.

“I think that our performance was a whole lot better than our win over Leigh last weekend.

“They prepared really well all week - clearly we had a number of players missing for a variety of reasons.

“But I think it showed that our preparation had been good.

“It’s just disappointing the scoreboard went where it went for us, because I don’t think we deserved that.

“We can take a lot of positives out of that and hopefully we can improve next week as much as we have this week going into next week’s game against St Helens.”