Catalans Dragons moved into seventh place in Super League with a convincing 44-16 victory over Castleford Tigers at the Stade Gilbert Brutus on Saturday evening, with halfback Josh Drinkwater scoring 24 of their points with three tries and six goals.
An understrength Tigers were 30-10 down at half-time, but were able to put the brakes on the Dragons in the second half, while conceding eight tries altogether.
The Dragons opened the scoring with an early penalty by Drinkwater before he scored a converted try.
The Tigers fought back and took an 8-10 lead with tries from James Clare and Quentin Laulu-Togagae, with Jamie Ellis converting the second.
But a Greg Bird try snatched the lead back for the Catalans and they added three more tries before the interval from Drinkwater, Louis Anderson and Julian Bousquet, all converted by Drinkwater.
In the second half they were in again through Kenny Edwards, but the Tigers closed the gap with a try by Paul McShane, converted by Ellis, but the Dragons added two more tries from Drinkwater and Lewis Tierney for a convincing victory.
Dragons: 31 Lewis Tierney, 20 Tony Gigot, 1 David Mead, 4 Brayden Wiliame, 5 Fouad Yaha, 6 Samisoni Langi, 33 Josh Drinkwater, 8 Rémi Casty, 19 Michael McIlorum, 15 Mickael Simon, 21 Benjamin Jullien, 12 Benjamin Garcia, 13 Greg Bird; Subs: 11 Louis Anderson, 14 Julian Bousquet, 17 Jason Baitieri, 34 Kenny Edwards
Tries: Drinkwater 3, Bird, Anderson, Bousquet, Edwards, Tierney Goals: Drinkwater 6
Tigers: 34 Quentin Laulu-Togagae, 29 Tuoyo Egodo, 3 Jake Webster, 4 Michael Shenton, 26 James Clare, 6 Jamie Ellis, 21 Jake Trueman, 32 Liam Watts, 9 Paul McShane, 15 Jesse Sene-Lefao, 8 Junior Moors, 11 Oliver Holmes, 14 Nathan Massey; Subs: 10 Grant Millington, 18 Matt Cook, 19 Gadwin Springer, 23 Mitch Clark
Tries: Clare, Laulu-Togagae, McShane Goals: Ellis 2
A full report and photos from this game will feature in Monday’s League Express, which is available to download digitally from Sunday evening.
