Catalans Dragons 18-10 Toulouse Olympique: Highlights, player ratings & talking points

A bruising encounter in the South of France saw Catalans Dragons hang onto claim a crucial 18-10 home win over French rivals Toulouse Olympique in what was a rough and tough match.

The win sees Steve McNamara’s team keep pace with St Helens and Wigan at the top of Super League, with those two teams meeting in tomorrow’s Good Friday derby.

It’s a seventh defeat in eight Super League games for Toulouse, who sit rock bottom of the league after Leeds drew with Huddersfield to move a point above them.

Highlights

Fouad Yaha brace: One of the key moments of the match was a first-half brace of tries from man mountain Fouad Yaha. The winger breezed away down the left following a cut-out pass from Josh Drinkwater before rounding Toulouse Olympique full-back Olly Ashall-Bott for his first. His second saw him stroll over, cashing on the numerical advantage after Matty Russell was sin-binned for the visitors.

Two sin-bins and a dismissal: Just when you think the amount of cards were subsiding in the Super League, think again! Both Matthew Russell and Eloi Pelissier were sin-binned for Toulouse, with Joe Chan sent off for Catalans. Russell for a professional foul, Pelissier for a shoulder charge and Chan for a spear tackle, all were rather warranted in what was an eventful fixture.

Talking Points

Toulouse ill-discipline: Toulouse are still trying to adjust to life in the top level but how long will their ill-discipline go on for. Though Catalans were not exactly squeaky clean themselves, Toulouse were guilty on more occasions of sloppy defending and attempts to slow play down, leading to penalties and set restarts that the Dragons punished.

Catalans Superiority Making History: As expected, last season’s runners-up Catalans Dragons secured the spoils in the all-French affair. They were made to work throughout the contest as Toulouse just would not go away. However, a win is a win as they made history of becoming the winners of the very first all-French Super League tie.

Catalans Injury crisis: Though they won, it came at a steep price as the Dragons lost more players to injury. Mike McMeeken departed with a serious arm injury, more news on that to follow but as the commentary team admitted, the Dragons are now down to just three ever-present players in 2022 as early as Easter. Though they gain another win, they may be in for a period of struggle should this crisis that has befallen them not slow down any time soon.

Player Ratings

Catalans Dragons:
20 – Tyrone May – 7
2 – Tom Davies – 6
19 – Arthur Romano – 7
11 – Matt Whitley – 8
5 – Fouad Yaha – 8
6 – Mitchell Pearce – 6
7 – Josh Drinkwater – 8
22 – Dylan Napa – 7
9 – Michael McIlorum – 7
23 – Jordan Dezaria – 7
15 – Benjamin Julien – 7
12 – Mike McMeeken – 7
13 – Benjamin Garcia – 7
Subs:
1 – Arthur Mourgue – 6
17 – Mickael Goudemand – 7
27 – Joe Chan – 5
28 – Sam Kasiano – 8

Toulouse Olympique:
27 – Olly Ashall-Bott – 7
5 – Paul Marcon – 7
24 – Guy Armitage – 7
21 – Chris Hankinson – 7
25 – Matty Russell – 7
31 – Tony Gigot – 7
7 – Lucas Albert – 7
23 – Justin Sangare – 7
13 – Anthony Marion – 7
8 – Romain Navarette – 7
26 – Hugo Pezet – 6
30 – Maxime Stefani – 7
15 – Maxime Puech – 7
Subs:
10 – Harrison Hansen – 7
14 – Eloi Pelissier – 7
18 – Mitch Garbutt – 7
22 – Gadwin Springer – 7