Catalans 38-6 Salford: Duport stars for Dragons

Catalans 38-6 Salford: Match stats

Catalans tries: Duport (10, 30, 79), Inu (51), Myler (64), Gigot (67)
Conversions/Penalties:  Walsh (10, 30, 38, 51, 64, 79)
Drop Goals: Walsh (69, 71) 

Salford tries:  Carney (60)
Conversions/Penalties:  O'Brien (60) 

Match report

Catalans Dragons secured a vital third win in a row over Salford to ease the pressure on head coach Laurent Frayssinous.

The home side have now won three games in a row since their 38-18 home defeat to Wakefield forced crisis talks and saw Frayssinous given three games to save his job.

He and his team responded with away wins at Leigh and Huddersfield and added another at home as Vincent Duport's three tries set up a 38-6 success against Salford.

Catalans were without long-term absentees Luke Burgess, Jodie Broughton and Greg Bird. Brayden Wiliame also missed out for the home side with a calf injury picked up in the win at Huddersfield last Wednesday.

The Red Devils welcomed back Todd Carney, making his first start for the Red Devils against his former team.

Catalans had the better of the first half, running into a 14-0 lead. Richie Myler almost opened the scoring in the fifth minute before Duport did score in the ninth minute. Good work from Luke Walsh and Iain Thornley saw the ball sent out to Duport, who powered his way over to score in the left corner and Luke Walsh added the goal to give the hosts a six-point advantage.

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Catalans continued to dominate proceedings and Myler was again close, being held up after Walsh's chip ahead rebounded back to the Catalans off the Salford crossbar.

Salford came into the game with two days' less rest than their opponents and their task was made more difficult with the loss of first Logan Tomkins (concussion) and then Junior Sa'u (adductor) through injury.

Duport added his second try of the game on the half-hour. Louis Anderson lost the ball over the line attempting to touch down but the ball was judged to have gone backwards and Duport won the race to touch down the loose ball. Walsh was again accurate with the conversion and the lead was 12-0.

Walsh extended the lead three minutes before the interval with a penalty conceded close to the Salford line by Michael Dobson.

The home side continued in a similar vein in the second half, taking only 11 minutes to extend their lead. Richie Myler's last-tackle kick to the right corner was taken above his head by Krisnan Inu, who ran around towards the posts to touch down. Walsh added the extras to take the score to 20-0.

On the hour mark, Salford were handed a lifeline when another Catalans kick to the right was plucked out of the air by Justin Carney, who raced 100 metres to score for the visitors. Gareth O'Brien added the conversion.

The bounce of the ball was on Catalans' side three minutes later as a Luke Walsh kick downfield sat up and evaded O'Brien and bounced perfectly into the hands of the chasing Richie Myler, who touched down to seal the win. Walsh added the conversion and the lead was back to 20 points at 26-6.

Tony Gigot scored his third try in as many appearances since his return to the side as he intercepted Robert Lui's pass and raced 70 metres to score in the right corner. Walsh missed the conversion attempt and the score remained 30-6.

Two Walsh drop-goals extended the Catalans lead to 32-6 before Duport latched onto Thomas Bosc's kick to the left corner to score and the conversion made it 38-6.

Match reaction

Salford head coach Ian Watson on the decision to send his team to France three days after their last Super League game: "Tiredness affected us massively. There were points in the game where it was there to be won and we just didn't have that little bit of energy but we've not wanted to make a big deal out of it.

"Catalans did a great job today but to ask professional athletes to have a two-day recovery and travel for over 10 hours and get here late at night to then go and compete against professional athletes who have had a five-day turnaround, then the RFL need to have a look at themselves really and what they've made us do.

"To be fair, it's not why we've lost the game and we won't make a big deal of it. I thought Catalans played really well, I thought they played smart at certain times.

"There was a try that wasn't a try and that probably didn't help us, but I thought at half-time that we could come back and get a result but, at certain points, we just didn't have that energy and whether that is just the Easter programme catching up with us or something else is something for us to look at."

Laurent Frayssinous on his team's defensive display: "I'm pleased with the last few weeks and especially tonight with our defence.

"I thought that was our best performance of the season in defence. I know that Salford played on Friday and there was some tiredness there but we did our job which is really pleasing.

"Like every team in the competition, we have our bruises and our injury problems but I'm really pleased with how the squad is reacting and putting their hands up to play for us.

"We lost Justin Horo in the second half with an Achilles problem, I feared the worst when I saw it, but the medical staff don't think it is a rupture, which is good news. Krisnan Inu played with a sore knee too after he picked up a knock in the Huddersfield game. It is a credit to him for putting his hand up to play today."