Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NAIQAMA DRAMA!
Kevin proves two good for Dragons
KEVIN NAIQAMA wrecked Catalans’ dreams of writing history with his own fairy-tale ending for St Helens.
The giant centre is leaving Saints to return home to Australia but he goes knowing he leaves a dynasty behind.
This was their third Super League title on the trot – only the second team to achieve that feat – and Saints are now without doubt one of the game’s all-time greats.
Catalans threw absolutely everything at them in their quest to become the first French team to win the Grand Final.
They led twice and had Saints rocking, especially when they had winger Tommy Makinson sin-binned in the second half for a high tackle.
But Saints held firm and, like true champions, came back swinging and landed the knockout blow through Naiqama.
The Fiji international, who went off injured straight after his second try, sobbed openly when the final hooter sounded.
The man-of-the-match said: “I’m so overwhelmed with emotion, I am just so proud of what the boys have accomplished, I just cannot believe we have done it.”
There were times Saints didn’t look like achieving it in an Old Trafford stadium awash with Catalans Dragons flags.
The French had brought several hundred fans, and neutrals in the 45,177 crowd also got behind their valiant effort to make history.
But, in the end, the League Leaders’
Shield-winners ended up with nothing to the dismay of coach Steve McNamara.
He looked devastated as he said:
“It’s pretty heartbreaking to get this far and lose by two. It was really tough, as Grand Finals should be, but unfortunately for us we just missed out.
“We left everything out there on the field. I could not have asked for more from the players. The most gutwrenching thing is we didn’t get the trophy to take back to our fans.
“I am extremely proud of what they achieved this season. It’s been a major step forward for the club this year, but it’s not the final one. We will be back.” Catalans will live to rue a first half in
which they struggled to get a grip on the game. And when they did look like having the chance they spurned it. James Maloney put them ahead with a penalty and strangely they again opted to go for goal when they were later awarded another penalty. Running it and going for a try seemed to be the better option. Instead they kicked and went in 6-4 down at half-time.
Saints were ahead courtesy of the first of Naiqama’s double and were denied two others by terrific try-saving tackles. Makinson was stopped by Josh Drinkwater and Regan Grace was bundled into touch by Tom Davies and Dean Whare.
The lead looked slender and Saints coach Kristian Woolf admits he was worried, saying: “We had a really good first half but did not come away with enough points.
“When they scored and we went down to 12 men I started to get a bit nervous.”
Makinson was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Fouad Yaha, but could have seen red on another day seeing as it prevented the winger from scoring.
Catalans took advantage, pouncing for a converted try from Mike McMeeken to put them ahead 10-6.
But Saints weathered the storm from the increasingly confident Dragons and came slugging their way back.
Jonny Lomax’s grubber kick was pounced on by Naiqama to level, with Lachlan Coote then holding his nerve to land the conversion and seal victory. CATALANS: Tries: McMeeken Pens: Maloney (2) Con: Maloney
ST HELENS: Tries: Naiqama (2) Pen: Coote