Tony Smith has previewed tonight’s clash against the Dragons, explaining last week’s win was a “shot in the arm”, but there is still plenty of work ahead for his side over the coming weeks.
The Black & Whites will be aiming to make it back-to-back wins in the South of France this evening when they take on the Dragons.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference about the Dragons, Smith said: “They’re a good team, and you’ve got to be really on your game if you’re going to go there and get through that fixture.
“They’re big and they’re strong, and they strangle you out of games. They’re good at it, and they play to their pace very well.
“It was interesting last week to see Leeds take a little bit of risk in terms of how they threw the ball around. I’m not saying we’ll throw the ball around quite as much as Leeds, but it did challenge the Catalans team a bit.
He added: “When they can, they get their noses in front, and then they drown you for the rest of the game. That’s the way they go. If you’re going to come on the right side of the scoreboard, you know you’ve got to defend well, and that’s something that we’ve also got to take into account.”
Smith also discussed the Black & Whites travel plans ahead of the game, having travelled to the South of France on Friday and stayed overnight in Perpignan.
“Any way you travel can’t guarantee anything. If you go out on the day, anybody who has done it, you go out in the morning, and you leave very early to get there in a reasonable time and to get settled. It’s a big ask. It’s exhausting to get back late and then recover; it knocks you down for a good few days. It knocks the players out of their routines and affects recovery times.
“Travelling over the night before means you don’t have to rush through anything. It’s a hard venue to go to and a hard place to play, but this just makes it easier. We can get over there and acclimatise a bit rather than arriving mid-morning and trying to get adjusted. I think this is definitely the preferred way.”
Reflecting on last Sunday’s win going into the battle with the Dragons, Smith continued: “We’re an honest bunch. We’re not jumping around thinking is rosy and dandy, and we’re fine now, but it was a bit of a shot in the arm as well. I like the fact that we could come from behind when it became a bit desperate, and there wasn’t any panic about it either. It was pretty controlled, and that was one of the lessons that we learned.
“We needed more control in greater parts of the second-half, and we would have come home comfortably, but we got back to being smart, not safe, with the way we constructed our set and some of the urgency and push that we showed there.
“It was just a really smart set of rugby league and to find that with two minutes to go, I applaud my players, they stuck with it and kept with the plan even when it got tight. That will stand us in good stead for the future.”
“It’s all early days still, and we’re only in week three,” Smith explained. “We’ll get better and better with more combinations still to come, but the players have shown some very good spirit in and amongst the games so far and in different ways.
“If that wasn’t there, we wouldn’t have gotten home last weekend. We also would have gotten beaten earlier and by a whole lot more the week before against Warrington. Our spirit has been pretty good. It’s been tested, our depth has been tested, and some of our combinations have been tested, but in terms of our spirit, our camaraderie, and our willingness to fight on the park, I can’t question my players.”
“We’re trying to do our best in a tough situation at the moment, and I think we’ve dug pretty deep,” Smith added. “I’m not looking for sympathy or anybody to feel sorry for ourselves; some of it has been our own doing, and some of it is just how it is and how our sport is now.”
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