Well done McNamara and Catalans, plainly obvious a coaching victory, Catalans had the game plan to overcome a tough Warrington side and stuck to it. And what a gripping Final. McNamara the coach has graduated.

It was a poor final in terms of actual skill on show, I can only think of one try that actually came from a piece of skill (a 40/20) rather than just capitalising on the other side's handling errors.

To see a team not find touch with a penalty, in a cup final, is just ridiculous.



I'm glad Catalans won though, for Steve and also for the good of the game. History was made yesterday.

Congratulations to Steve and the Catalans club, it was a monster performance from a very good side with a very good coach and it is also a big boost for European rugby -and via circuitous route that includes the UK.

Hopefully the monkey of the Bulls spell is now off his back. His CV will actually look quite good - Assistant when the Bulls were winning things. Assistant down under when the title was won. Won a series with GB and very unfortunate to lose that job. Picked Cats off the floor and won the cup. He is now a serious top flight coach.

He came in for lot of unfounded criticism just because he took the job when Nobby saw what was coming and jumped ship. He unfortunately doesn't communicate in an authoritative way with his accent but I am absolutely delighted for him now and good luck to him in his hopefully long career. Lots of clubs will now take him seriously. Would we again some time in the future - now that is an interesting question.

It is also interesting that Catalan are actually an amalgamation of two local teams. Think I've read somewhere that merging two local teams is doomed to fail from the offset.