SAINTS coach Paul Wellens was disappointed with his side’s 14-8 defeat by Catalans Dragons in Perpignan and rued their large error count.

First half tries from Jack Welsby and Tommy Makinson either side of one from Catalans; Mike McMeeken, gave Saints and 8-6 lead at the break.

But despite going close – especially when Lewis Dodd got over the line – they failed to score in the second half and succumbed to a converted score from Matt Ikuvalu.

Wellens said: “We were the masters of our downfall tonight and that's not to take anything away from Catalans and the way they competed, given the disruption they've had.

“But when you make as many errors as we've made tonight and when you give away as many penalties as we have tonight you make it very difficult yourself wherever you go, never mind going to a place like this.

“Our ill-discipline was the messy stuff that just kept releasing the pressure on the opposition, which is frustrating.

“I don't think we were poor defensively, we just had to do too much of it and we brought that on ourselves.

“We showed in periods, how many times we've got tackled a metre from the line and Lewis Dodd getting tackled over the line. There were some key moments in the games that we didn't quite take as well.

“I was just disappointed with our overall approach really is and I include myself in that. That's not just the players – we all need to be better.”

Wellens focused on what his side failed to do with the ball, describing their approach as “pass happy”.

It was clear at times there was a lot of lateral play, moving the ball wide without making any incision into the line. It meant those moves were easily snuffed out .

“I think when you come and play any big game, you've got to be prepared to earn the right to play,” Wellens said.

“And we came with a game plan tonight and we sensed there would be opportunities to get some joy.

“We wanted to get that straight away and against good teams and in the tough environments you have got to be prepared to earn it and we just weren't quite at our best in doing that.

“I think we've just got a bit too pass happy. We want to evolve our attack and we have spoken about being better in that area.   “But what we did with our approach was to actually limit the amount of times we got the ball because we weren't prepared to get through to the end of the sets and make them come out of their end as much as much as they made us come out ours.

“It feels like we beat ourselves - again, we don't want to take anything away from the opposition, but that's my overriding emotion.”

After back-to-back wins at Leeds followed by a Good Friday victory, defeat in France – their fifth consecutive defeat by Catalans – is a bit of a comedown.

But Wellens believes that the weaknesses displayed are easily fixable.

“The one thing I've learned since doing this job is that when you're doing well, you're probably never as good as you think you are.

“And when you've been poor, you never as poor as you think you are.

“I think there's some relatively easy fixes in there for us because I completely trust the playing group and I can't question how much they care and they show that every week.

“We have just got to be smarter in certain areas.

“It'll be business as usual next week. What this group tends to do really well is respond from disappointments. So I have every confidence in the group we can do that next week.”

Wellens did express his regret for the 1,200 travelling supporters who made the trip to Perpignan.

“It's disappointing we've lost the game and I feel for our supporters because they've travelled here in huge numbers.

“We're so grateful and so thankful for the huge following and we're disappointed for our supporters tonight because we didn't give them what they deserve,” he said.