WOLVES boss Tony Smith wants his players to use the 38-18 defeat at Catalans Dragons as a spur for the remainder of the season.

He was pleased with the way his men changed the momentum for a spell in the second half, cutting the arrears to 18-12 from 18-0 at half time, and felt the Dragons’ long-range try scored by Zeb Taia after a Matty Russell knock-on in the act of stretching to score at the other end was the game changer.

Smith felt the flat display in the first half probably stemmed from the physical encounter with St George Illawarra Dragons in the World Club Series and the tough week that followed, including difficulties with training.

“We’ve had disappointing days before, including here, but we weren’t quite on it, particularly in that first half,” said Smith.

“I thought we rallied in the second half to swing momentum and we did get momentum back for a while too – to the point where I thought we may well have carried on with it.

“That long-distance try that they scored in the second half probably flattened the turning momentum.”

Although Catalans were 18-0 ahead at the break, Smith didn’t feel the two sides’ performance was too far apart.

“I thought we were flat in the first half. Catalans were a bit better than us, and I know they scored 18 points but I didn’t think they were great – they were just solid.

“I thought we were a little bit ill-disciplined with a couple of cheap penalties and a couple of fumbles at crucial times.

“Instead of putting pressure on them, it put pressure back on us. That’s what can happen sometimes.

“In the scheme of things, the good thing for us was for a while we were able to change our way the momentum that was going against us.

“We need to be able to learn to do that if it ever goes against us in the same sort of way it did in the first half.”

Smith explained some of the difficulties in the week leading into the game, which Wolves went into without the services of Richie Myler (hernia operation yesterday), Rhys Evans (shoulder), Stefan Ratchford (shoulder) and Anthony England (elbow).

And it included the first big training session of the week only coming in France 24 hours before kick off.

“It was a tough, physical game against St George and it may well have flattened us a bit,” he said.

“That’s what you’ve got to learn to cope with for those big games within the season when you do have to put big effort in and you’re going to have to back it up.

“At the moment we showed that we didn’t quite do that. That’s what we’re striving to do throughout the rest of this year.

“Although we had some bumps and bruises going into the game from last week, the players were terrific in training yesterday, which was our first big session for the week really. They trained really well and looked sharp.

“It has been a tough week for us and I think we were a bit flat from it but I’m taking nothing away from Catalans who did well and needed to today.

“We’ll certainly look forward to better weeks in terms of numbers in training, those able to train and able to do full training. Whenever we have that it makes it much easier in that respect.

“It is what it is and we have to deal with it. Unfortunately this week we didn’t deal with it so well.”

Smith feels the last hiding at Stade Gilbert Brutus in 2012 – the Easter Monday 44-16 crash - was the catalyst for a run he hopes his men can emulate this term.

“I think the last time we suffered a hefty defeat by the Catalans we went on to reach the Grand Final so we’d like a similar outcome to this one as well.

“I wouldn’t like to think we’ll have too many days as tough as today in terms of points scored against us.

“Hopefully that’ll kick us into gear for the next few months.”