CATALANS DRAGONS 26 HULL FC 27
RICKY WILBY, Stade Gilbert Brutus, Saturday

DESPITE neither side being able to make the end-of-season play-offs, Catalans and Hull FC produced a superb game settled only by Jake Arthur’s late field-goal.

As has been seen by both sides this season, defence left much to the imagination and the coaches wouldn’t be satisfied, but it led to an entertaining game that saw much of the 9,000 crowd go home happy, despite the result.

There was plenty of intrigue with Dragons coach John Cartwright going up against Hull for the first time since leaving in unfriendly fashion in April.

And on the field the battle of note involved the two number nines, Catalans’ Alrix Da Costa and Hull’s Amir Bourouh, who are confirmed to be switching sides in the off-season.

The Black and Whites opened the scoring in the third minute with a flowing move on the back of a penalty and Catalans kicking out on the full. A slip by Nick Cotric allowed Logan Moy to dummy his way over down the left wing, where Aidan Sezer added the conversion.

The visitors increased their lead through Lewis Martin. A crossfield kick looked certain to be taken by the Catalans defender only for Ethan O’Neill to show more desire and effort and knock the ball back to Arthur Romano, whose a swift pass put his winger in. Sezer this time hit the far upright with the conversion attempt.

Charlie Staines brought Catalans back into the game with a try built on the back of some quick play-the-balls then good work from Kruise Leeming and Da Costa. Staines collected the ball and darted inside the onrushing defence to score down the right edge, and Guillermo Aispuro Bichet added the conversion to bring the scores to 6-10.

Sezer added two penalty-goals leading up to half-time to give the visitors an eight-point advantage before Leeming narrowed the Catalans deficit two minutes before the break. A superb offload by Toby Sexton saw the Catalans hooker dive over to the right of the posts, and Aispuro Bichet added the conversion to take the half-time score to 12-14.

Hull marched upfield in the opening stages of the second half and opened up Catalans’ left edge defence only for Davy Litten to lose control of the ball in the process of placing it down over the line.

Instead Catalans took the lead for the first time in the game seven minutes into the second half. A smart grubber to the in-goal area from Leeming saw Edenn Rogers-Smith touch down the loose ball for his first Dragons try.

Aispuro-Bichet added the conversion ten metres in from touch before adding a penalty-goal two minutes later for 20-14.

Catalans further extended their lead three minutes later, as a number of six-agains and a penalty resulted in Sexton’s wide ball putting Darrélatour into the right corner.

Aispuro-Bichet once again kicked the conversion from the touchline to take the score to 26-14.

But FC came back into the game with 16 minutes remaining through Harvie Hill who broke the Catalans line, drew Staines and threw an outrageous dummy to fool everyone and send Staines for the paper and a pint of milk before racing under the posts.

Sezer added the goal to narrow the Catalans lead to six points, which was wiped out with eleven minutes to go by Sezer himself when he raced over after brilliant interplay with James Bell down the left edge and converted.

In the closing moments of the game, Catalans ran a last-tackle play when 20 metres away from the Hull line. Hull came up with the ball and marched down field before finding Arthur in the same position, where the halfback slot over the winning field-goal.

GAMESTAR: Jake Arthur bossed the last 20 minutes of the game and it was his field-goal that won the game for Hull.

GAMEBREAKER: Arthur’s kick five minutes from time secured the two points for the Black and Whites.

HIGHLIGHT REEL: Harvie Hill’s dummy and run to the line fooled absolutely everyone, including Charlie Staines.

ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Jake Arthur (Hull FC)
2 pts Toby Sexton (Catalans)
1 pt Davy Litten (Hull FC)

MATCHFACTS

DRAGONS
1 Charlie Staines
28 Léo Darrélatour
3 Nick Cotric
24 Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet
2 Tommy Makinson
6 Toby Sexton
7 Lewis Dodd
16 Josh Allen
19 Kruise Leeming
17 Romain Navarrete
13 Ben Garcia
33 Edenn Rogers-Smith
9 Alrix Da Costa
Subs (all used)
10 Julian Bousquet
12 Ben Condon
21 Matthieu Laguerre
29 Giovanni Descalzi (D)
18th man (not used)
30 Alexis Lis
Also in 21-man squad
26 Ugo Tison
27 Clément Martin
35 Mickael Goudemand

Tries: Staines (18), Leeming (38), Rogers Smith (47), Darrélatour (54)
Goals: Aispuro-Bichet 5/5

HULL FC
24 Logan Moy
2 Harvey Barron
3 Davy Litten
21 Arthur Romano
5 Lewis Martin
6 Jake Arthur
7 Aidan Sezer
8 Herman Ese’ese
9 Amir Bourouh
10 Harvie Hill
11 Joe Batchelor
39 Ethan O’Neill
15 James Bell
Subs (all used)
16 Sam Lisone
18 Ligi Sao
19 Tom Briscoe
29 Will Hutchinson
18th man (not used)
26 Hugo Salabio
Also in 21-man-squad
25 Matty Laidlaw
32 Lloyd Kemp
35 Ben Johnson

Tries: Moy (3), Martin (13), Hill (64), Sezer (69)
Goals: Sezer 5/6
Field-goals: Arthur (75)

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 0-10, 6-10, 6-12, 6-14, 12-14; 18-14, 20-14, 26-14, 26-20, 26-26, 26-27

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Dragons: Toby Sexton; Hull FC: Jake Arthur

Penalty count: 6-6
Half-time: 12-14
Referee: Tara Jones
Attendance: 9,521