YORK KNIGHTS​​ 22 CATALANS DRAGONS ​​36
JACOB KILBRIDE, LNER Community Stadium, Saturday

TO call any contest a must-win in round twelve would be stretching credulity, yet this felt as close as for Catalans and their play-off ambitions.

After bruising defeats to Leeds, Leigh and Wakefield, Catalans were in desperate need of a victory to keep apace with the top six, especially when facing the newly-promoted and injury-decimated York.

This was far from a vintage display by the Dragons, with some concentration lapses allowing the Knights back into proceedings on multiple occasions during a wild second half, but the two points were vitally secured in John Cartwright’s first match at the helm.

For York, such are their injury afflictions that they were down to just one recognised prop for prolonged periods, though that should not excuse some pitiful tackling, particularly early in the second half.

Their spirit remains as strong as ever though and the four tries they managed showed that boss Mark Applegarth retains a group committed to overturning a now three-match losing streak.

There were errors aplenty from both sides in the early exchanges, the most costly coming on the quarter-hour mark when Scott Galeano lost the ball over the tryline from a shift to the right edge.

Catalans quickly punished the profligate York. Chief organiser Toby Sexton hung a short-side kick to the left corner before Guillerm Aispuro-Bichet offloaded into the path of Matty Russell to burrow over and claim a debut Dragons try.

Russell could well have doubled his tally when a neat move to the left resulted in Solomona Faataape putting the winger in space just shy of the corner flag, only for the ball to bobble out of his hands.

With seconds left on the clock, a high shot by the Knights allowed Aispuro-Bichet to knock over a penalty goal after Sexton’s earlier missed conversion.

The Dragons raced out of the blocks from the second-half restart with the hosts caught napping, conceding twice in the space of four minutes.

Off the back fence, Tevita Satae broke through Kieran Buchanan and Sam Wood’s attempted tackles before Aispuro-Bichet raced straight out of dummy-half for a 30-metre finish. The France international converted his own try, the first of five conversions from as many attempts.

York continued to drop off tackles in the build-up to back-rower Franck Maria throwing a delightful back-of-the-hand inside pass to Faataape for a stroll-in.

A sublime scrum set play from the left edge got the Knights back in the contest as Denive Balmforth scampered straight through a gap from 30 metres out. Cody Hunter added on the first of three conversions from the tee.

Any comeback hopes were quickly dashed when York failed to deal with a Sexton bomb, allowing the Australian to finish his own kick.

The Knights were briefly back to within two scores when a David Nofoaluma offload gave Galeano a long-range break, with the supporting Will Roberts on hand to finish, but Catalans had breathing room again thanks to Ugo Tison’s dummy-half scoot past some tired tryline defence.

Whatever the limitations of this York side, their spirit is undoubted, two late scores proving just as much. An opportunistic Balmforth grabbed his second after Catalans failed to field a Hunter kick, before the overlapping Nofoaluma went over after an Oli Field offload.

The last word belonged to the Dragons though as Sexton’s deceptive inside pass saw a twisting Charlie Staines twist over at the death.

GAMESTAR: Toby Sexton controlled proceedings with a classy kicking game in the middle of the park and claimed a try of his own during Catalans’s fast start to the second half.

GAMEBREAKER: When Ugo Tison reaffirmed a three-score for Catalans with a close-range dummy-half finish, there was no way back for the Knights.

HIGHLIGHT REEL: Solomona Faataape latched onto a sumptuous inside drop-off pass from Franck Maria, the second-row showing the skillset of a playmaking half.

ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Toby Sexton (Catalans)
2 pts Josh Allen (Catalans)
1 pt Charlie Staines (Catalans)

MATCHFACTS

KNIGHTS
24 Will Dagger
5 Scott Galeano
4 Sam Wood
1 Toa Mata’afa
46 David Nofoaluma
37 Cody Hunter
38 Will Roberts
8 Jack Martin
48 Tom Inman
31 King Vuniyayawa
21 Kieran Buchanan
20 Oli Field
9 Paul McShane
Subs (all used)
6 Ata Hingano
14 Denive Balmforth
15 Xavier Va’a
17 Kieran Hudson
18th man (not used)
23 Jon Bennison
Also in 19-man squad
19 Danny Richardson

Tries: Balmforth (46, 73), Roberts (59), Nofoaluma (76)
Goals: Hunter 3/4

DRAGONS
1 Charlie Staines
23 Matty Russell (D)
21 Matthieu Laguerre
4 Solomona Faataape
3 Nick Cotric
6 Toby Sexton
24 Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet
16 Josh Allen
26 Ugo Tison
17 Romain Navarrete
11 Zac Lopwicz
20 Franck Maria
13 Ben Garcia
Subs (all used)
8 Tevita Satae
12 Ben Condon
18 Harvey Wilson
30 Alexis Lis
18th man (not used)
25 Lenny Marc
Also in 21-man squad
19 Kruise Leeming
27 Clement Martin
32 Adrian Delarose

Tries: Russell (17), Aispuro-Bichet (41), Faataape (44), Sexton (49), Tison (66), Staines (78)
Goals: Sexton 0/1, Aispuro-Bichet 6/6

SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-4, 0-6; 0-12, 0-18, 6-18, 6-24, 12-24, 12-30, 18-30, 22-30, 22-36

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Knights: Denive Balmforth; Dragons: Toby Sexton

Penalty count: 6-6
Half-time: 0-6
Referee: Matty Lynn