After a disappointing loss in Newcastle, the Catalans Dragons were looking to get back to winning ways, and join Warrington and Wigan on twenty-two points with a win over struggling Hull KR. Despite four wins in fifteen outings the Robins still had an outside hope of a top eight finish but a loss to day would make the middle eights look increasingly likely.
Both sides were without key players, KR missing Campese and Catalans without Myler and Mason, but there were enough stars on the field for an intriguing match.
It was the Dragons who opened the scoring when Jodie Broughton found an acre of space on the overlap to go over and improve the angle allowing Pat Richards to kick the conversion for a 6-0 lead after six minutes.
A delightful Dave Taylor falling offload found the supporting Todd Carney in perfect position to scamper five metres and score by the posts. Pat Richards added the extra two for 12-0 and already the Robins were in all sorts of trouble.
On twenty-one and after conceding a penalty in their own twenty, KR were punished again when Lucas Albert went through a gap engineered by Louis Anderson to score. Richards missed a simple looking conversion leaving his side 16-0 ahead.
KR struck back on twenty-the when Ian Thornley made a great dancing break through the Catalans defence before he found Kevin Larroyer in support to score by the left upright with his first touch after coming on from the bench. Ken Sio kicked the extras and the lead was down to ten points.
After a patient build-up Louis Anderson was put through a gap by Tony Gigot to dive over unopposed for the Dragons fourth of the evening but Richards was again inaccurate with the boot.
Louis Anderson turned f m scorer to provider of the next try when he broke the KR line before passing to Tony Gigot to go twenty-five minutes to score. This time Richards kicked the extras and after thirty-six minutes it was 26-6 to the home side.
Thirty seconds from the interval, the Dragons took advantage of penalty thirty metres from the line when Richards kicked a goal for a 28-6 lead.
The opening twenty-three minutes of the second half were deadlocked until Maurice Blair found Joe Wardill to cross in the corner, just reward for a far better second half performance. Ken Sio failed to convert but the margin was back to three converted tries.
The Dragons scored a superb try on sixty-eight when a kick through was knocked back by Horo as he went over the dead ball line, and touched down Tony Gigot for his second of the afternoon. Richards added the extras for 34-10.
Fifteen seconds from the final hooter and it was KR who got the last points of the game when Ken Sio pushed off the tacklers to go in out wide right. Albert Kelly kicked the extras for a final score of 34-16 in a second half during which they out scored the hosts by two tries to one.
The Dragons got back to winning ways in grand style with a comprehensive victory. They bossed big tranches of the game, and despite being pegged back from their free scoring in the second half, they always looked in charge and the two points were never in danger. KR are now left with an uphill struggle to make the top eight, but the Dragons can look forward to being in the mix when it comes to the run in to the Grand Final.
Dragons: Gigot (2T), Broughton (T), Horo, Duport, Richards (5G), Carney (T), Albert (T), Taylor, Pelissier, Casty, Stewart, Anderson (T), Baitieri. Subs: Bousquet, Mounis, Bosc, Maria.
KR: Marsh, Sio (T, G), Clarkson, Thornley, Wardill (T), Blair, Kelly (G), Tilse, Lunt, Walker, Donaldson, Greenwood, Mulhern. Subs: Larroyer (T), Lawler, Boudebza, Green.
Referee: James Child.
Attendance:
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