COOTE FINISH FOR CHAMPS
But Folau fails to take knee for beaten Catalans
LACHLAN COOTE played a starring role as St Helens marked Super League’s restart with a return to their titlewinning form of last year.
The Australian full-back scored two tries and created another in a sparkling team performance that erased memories of their shaky start to the campaign.
The left side of Zeb Taia and Mark Percival punched holes in a disappointing Catalans defence, and hooker James Roby thrived under the ‘six again’ rule that has speeded the sport up.
With James Graham making an accomplished return to his boyhood club there was much for coach Kristian Woolf to be positive about four early-season defeats.
“I said all week I thought we came back good, we trained exceptionally well and we were expecting a good performance,” said Woolf. “Our contact and our defence and the attitude showed was really good.
“The new rules certainly looked like they suited us.”
The match started with
Super League’s players taking a knee for the
Black Lives Matter movement for the first time, with the exception of Catalans centre Israel Folau.
Dragons coach Steve McNamara said: “As a whole club we are completely against racism and for equal opportunity.
“Some players and staff chose not to take the knee – that was personal choice and as a group we respected that.”
McNamara’s side started the game positively before Coote took a superb tap inside from Taia to touch down.
By halftime it was 16-0 as Coote kicked for James Bentley to score and Taia scoring from a smart James Lomax pass.
The one-way traffic continued after the restart, Coote finishing a superb move initiated by Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook’s break and Tommy Makinson beating a host of Catalans defenders for the fifth try.
James Maloney dummied over for the Dragons before Alex Walmsley charged over.
McNamara added: “For the first 10 minutes it looked like it was going to be a great game. But we started making basic mistakes.
“The ‘six again’ rule kicked in and we couldn’t control Saints’ back three.
“They got momentum and it was very difficult for us to try and get that back.”