Catalans Dragons 40-8 Warrington Wolves: Highlights, player ratings and talking points

After an initially tight game, Catalans ran riot at the end of the fixture to deal Daryl Powell’s team another blow and keep the pressure up on the top two.

Highlights

Warrington struck first as youngster Connor Wrench went in in the corner, giving his side a much-needed confidence boost at the start of the game.

Catalans did not take long to respond, however, as Tyrone May handed Tom Davies an easy try with a flick pass.

For the next half an hour the game was slow and neither side could break down the other, until the deadlock was broken by a solo Mitchell Pearce try. Then the Dragons started to really turn it on, scoring a flurry of points in the final stage of the game as Julian Bousquet and Gil Dudson scored rare tries. This was followed by a further two brilliant tries from Fouad Yaha and Arthur Morgue to provide an embarrassing scoreline.

Talking points

1. Catalans need Sam Tomkins to stay fit

Tomkins adds so much to Catalans when he plays. He is usually praised for his brilliant attack, but today it was his defence which shone. He made several try-saving tackles to keep his side in the game. For Catalans to maintain the consistency needed to end up in another Grand Final, they will need Sam Tomkins to be involved as much as possible.

2. Catalans show their creativity

After a relatively conservative 68 minutes from both sides, Catalans ended up blowing the visitors away. The likes of Yaha, Mourgue, Laguerre and Pearce showed what they can do as they tore Warrington apart. Another positive of the late flurry was that Fouad Yaha broke Vincent Duport’s long-standing try scoring record.

3. Warrington’s attack looks blunt

Although they were without Gareth Widdop, Warrington have no excuse for how poor their attack has been. Their set plays were non-existent and at times they were relying on prop forwards to put kicks in. They were disjointed for the entire second half and if they are to start making up for their slow start, they need to put points on the board.

Player Ratings:

29 Sam Tomkins – 9

5 Fouad Yaha – 8

18 Mathieu Laguerre – 8

20 Tyrone May – 7

2 Tom Davies – 6

9 Michael Mcllorum – 7

10 Julien Bosquet – 7

11 Matt Whitley – 7

27 Joe Chan – 7

13 Benjamin Garcia – 8

Subs

8 Gil Dudson – 8

17 Mickael Goudemand – 8

23 Jordan Dezaria – 6

28 Sam Kasiano – 6

Warrington Wolves

22 Josh Thewlis – 7

27 Connor Wrench – 7

3 Peter Mata’utia – 6

11 Ben Currie – 6

5 Matthew Ashton – 7

1 Stefan Ratchford – 5

7 George Williams – 5

19 Rob Mulhern – 7

9 Daryl Clark – 7

10 Michael Cooper – 7

24 Ellis Longstaff – 6

12 Oliver Holmes – 6

18 Billy Magoulias – 6

Subs

8 Joe Philbin – 6

14 Jason Clark – 6

15 Joe Bullock – 6

16 Danny Walker – 6