Catalans 27 Warrington 16

14 April 2012

Both sides went into the Perpignan tussle on the back of 50-point defeats but it was Mick Potter's Dragons who were able to bounce back with Stacey Jones at the heart of their success.

The clash was billed by Potter as the battle of the walking wounded, with both teams without nine first team players through injury.

Wolves did welcome back captain Lee Briers from a hamstring complaint but Adrian Morley was not quite ready to return from a fractured cheekbone and Paul Cullen included several youngsters in his squad.

In front of a crowd of 9,050 - the highest since their return to the Stade Gilbert Brutus at the start of the season - Catalans opened the scoring when Thomas Bosc landed a penalty.

The French side's advantage was then extended to eight points with Bosc converting after Jones's kick had found winger Olivier Charles for a try on his Catalans debut.

Wolves looked to be struggling at that point but, after Dragons forward Reni Casty had been placed on report for a spear tackle on Andy Bracek, the visitors hit back with two tries to lead 10-8 at the interval.

Mark Gleeson put Ben Westwood through a gaping hole, with Briers then converting, before Briers and Martin Gleeson combined to put Henry Fa'afili over in the corner for a fine try.

Catalans regained the lead four minutes into the second half with Casey McGuire skipping past Ben Harrison and Stuart Reardon for a converted effort.

But Westwood then grabbed his second try of the game from Martin Gleeson's pass, although Brier's conversion hit the post.

And Catalans took advantage of that miss to move 20-14 ahead as Alex Chan touched down after John Wilson had knocked back a kick from Jones, who then added a drop goal.

Briers did reduce the deficit to five points with a penalty but Bosc surged over to seal Catalans' win in the closing stages.

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