Catalans Dragons 38-18 Warrington Wolves report James Gordon Pictures Eddie Whitham
WARRINGTON Wolves suffered their first Super League defeat of the season, going down 38-18 against Catalans Dragons in France.
The Dragons opened up an 18-0 advantage in the first half, and despite a fightback from the Wolves in the second half, it proved too much.
Willie Tonga’s converted try opened the scoring on nine minutes, and then a quick fire double increased the Dragons advantage. First, Michael Oldfield crossed down the right on 26 minutes, before Vincent Duport reciprocated on the other flank two minutes later.
Warrington dragged themselves back in the game early in the second half, Joel Monaghan touching down from a loose pass to reduce arrears, and then Gary Wheeler’s try was given by the video referee to make it 18-12.
A Scott Dureau penalty, following a high tackle by Mickey Higham, enabled the hosts to stretch their lead back out to two scores, and a fourth Dragons try on the hour from Zeb Taia settled their nerves.
Taia added a gamebreaking second try minutes later to stretch Catalans’ lead to 32-12, before Joe Philbin and Dureau exchanged late tries to secure back-to-back wins for Laurent Frayssinous’ men.
Catalans: Escare, Oldfield, Pomeroy, Tonga, Duport, Carney, Dureau, Anderson, Henderson, Lima, Taia, Whitehead, Mounis. Subs: Garcia, Bousquet, Maria, Baitieri.
Warrington: Russell, Monaghan, Bridge, Atkins, Penny, O’Brien, Wheeler, Hill, Clark, Sims, Currie, Laithwaite, Westwood. Subs: Harrison, Higham, Asotasi, Philbin.
Some of the barmy army on the eve of the game
