Wakefield Trinity boss Mark Applegarth rues 'unforced errors' in missed opportunity against Catalans Dragons

Trinity led twice in the first half before going on to lose 38-24 at the Be Well Support Stadium and it was too many unforced errors that let them down, according to Applegarth.

Whatever the reason it was a missed opportunity already with the French club arriving without a number of first team stars, including Mitchell Pearce, Siosiua Taukeiaho, Sam Tomkins and Tyrone May, who were unavailable.

"We came up with some unforced errors and got burned,” said Applegarth.

"It stings but it's a lesson we've got to learn – to build and sustain pressure on teams.

"Catalans are a quality team and will punish you for it.

"As a collective, we've got to learn and we invited a lot of undue pressure on ourselves.”

It was a Trinity old boy who did much of the damage with their former winger Tom Johnstone flying in for a hat-trick on his Catalans debut following his move from Belle Vue.

Applegarth was obviously aware of the threat posed by Johnstone’s brilliant finishing, but his team could not stop him on crucial occasions.

He explained: "He's a quality player, especially from kicks.

"I think they scored four or five tries from kicks. We'd worked a lot all week on kicks coming in behind or in the aerial battle, but guys like Tom are known for it.

"We'll have to review them before I give an informed answer on whether we could have dealt with them better."

Mark Applegarth confident Lewis Murphy remains 100 per cent committed to Wakefield Trinity

It was not all doom and gloom with Trinity themselves scoring four tries and Applegarth added: "The effort is there.

"You score 24 points and that should be enough to win a game of rugby league. That's what stings.

"We'll dust ourselves down, review it and draw a line in the sand and get ready for Wigan."

Trinity’s tough start to the season sees them down to play last year's top six in their first seven rounds and they follow-up their Catalans test with a likely even bigger one away to Wigan Warriors on Friday night (8pm).