SAINTS boss Keiron Cunningham believes his side's early errors proved costly as they crashed to defeat to Catalans Dragons in Perpignan on Saturday.

Although Adam Swift scored four tries Saints lost after Zeb Taia scored a killer try four minutes from time.

"It was a very tough game for us, we paid the price for a pretty poor start to the game," Cunningham said.

"That was the hottest part of the day and we always say that if you make errors then you have to pay the piper and we paid in a big way towards the end of the game."

Jordan Turner, who had a fine early game, left the field shortly before half-time with suspected heat stroke.

The Saints boss highlighted mistakes and careless play from some of his younger players as costing them.

"I feel that we could have won that game, we certainly had the opportunities but we made silly mistakes and some of our younger players were undisciplined.

"Some of them will be lucky to play for the club over the next few weeks," he added.