CATALANS winger Tommy Makinson enjoyed an “emotional” evening as he scored a milestone 200th try – but copped a spray from his coach on the way.
The Perpignan franchise finished the season with a flourish, ending Hull’s season into the bargain, with a 26-22 triumph at MKM Stadium in which exciting fullback Guilermo Aspuro Bichet took a personal haul of 14 points from two tries and three goals.
Along the way, Makinson posted a 9th minute try that took took him to outright fourth on Super League’s all-time list. He also served up a spectacular no-look pass for centre Reimis Smith’s 19th-minute score.
“Everyone will tell you you don’t play the game for personal records but when you break something like that, it’s pretty special,” Makinson, 33, told Sky Sports.
“It’s pretty emotional. A kid from Wigan … my granddad and grandma were watching and to score 200 tries … pretty proud as well. My partner and children at home … it’ll get beaten in time but for now I can say I was up there, I could score a try.”
But if Makinson was on cloud nine at halftime, he was soon sent plummeting to earth by Catalans coach Joel Tomkins.
“At halftime he said ‘you’re not kicking off one more time’. He wasn’t happy with my kick-offs. Hopefully he was happy with my performance tonight.”
Hull coach John Cartwright, whose side with a win could have stayed in the play-off race, sensed his team’s focus was down.
“Probably the worst thing we could do would be to score a try early,” he said.
“I was just a little bit worried about the atmosphere here tonight and we did have stuff to play for – you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.
“Our intensity for that first half and the first part of the second half wasn’t what it’s been.
“I’m trying not to be disappointed … I’m proud of what we’ve done this year. We probably got beaten by a bigger side tonight.
“I’ll get off here and give myself a punch in the face and we’ll talk about the positives of the year.”
As for Makinson, he overtook former team-mate and current St Helens coach Paul Wellens on that tryscorers chart and can now prepare for a new season without the record hanging over him.
“I said to Luke Keary ‘I (hope) I get my 200th tonight and he said ‘we’ll get it (for) you’ and it was Tevita (Pangai Junior) who got it for me in the end and I got over in the corner,” he said.
“I can relax this pre-season knowing I’ve overtook Wello. I hope he’s watching.”
CATALANS 26 (Aspuro-Bichet 2 Cotric Makinson Smith tries Aspuro-Bichet 3 goals) bt HULL FC 22 (Barron 2 Martin 2 tries Hardaker 3 goals) at MKM Stadium
Teams:
HULL: Logan Moy; Harvey Barron, Tom Briscoe, Davy Litten, Lewis Martin; Callum Kemp, Aiden Sezer; Yusef Aydin, Amir Bourouh, Liam Watts, Zak Hardaker, Shaun Lane, Brad Fash. Res: Denive Balnforth, Kade Cust, Will Gardiner, Matty Laidlaw.
CATALANS: Guillermo Aspiro-Bichet; Tommy Makinson, Nick Cotric, Reimis Smith, Fouad Yaha; Luke Keary, Theo Fages; Jordan Dezaria, Alrix Da Costa, Ben Garcia, Tevita Pangai-Junior, Paul Seguier, Oliver Partington. Res: Arthur Romano, Julian Bousquet, Chris Satae, Ugo Tison.
Referee: Liam Moore