Super League club set to sign halfback to replace veteran

After losing to Wigan Warriors in the Super League Grand Final, it was clear that Catalans Dragons were on the eve of a new era at the club.

That era is set to yield a signing or two before the start of the new season. According to reports in France, Bernard Guasch is determined to bring more pace to the Catalans attack going forward especially after missing out on Kruise Leeming to Wigan.

Looking at a nine is on the to do list but that may be a priority for the 2025 season with Michael McIlorum going on for another year after talk that he would retire when Catalans were interested in Leeming.

This is unless Brad Dwyer becomes available after Sam Powell joined Warrington Wolves. There has been talk he could go to Salford Red Devils but Catalans could be interested.

Joe Lovodua is available but the reason Catalans are unlikely to sign him is because they are more likely to go in the market to find a halfback partner for Theo Fages after the exits of Tyrone May and Mitchell Pearce.

According to reports in France, the club are interested in signing a halfback to replace Pearce.

Pearce will be some player to replace for the Dragons. After the Grand Final, Steve McNamara paid tribute to the halfback even though Old Trafford wasn’t his finest hour:

“Mitchell was good tonight, he was good before the game but you could quite clearly see during the second half there he was struggling.

“He was struggling to at any speed there running wise and Wigan came down the edge a little bit, it was a big decision there to take him off but he just couldn’t run well enough there.

“So that was the decision around that but Mitchell’s been a joy to work with, he’s an outstanding person, he’s developed so many parts of himself, his personality, the way he lives his life, everything else whilst he’s been in France and he’s going to be a couple of old boys involved. ”

Asked if he should have taken him off sooner, he said: “It’s hard to say, but no, it was 8-2 and the game was in the balance. Our key halves were all in the key positions. McIlorum, Pearce, May, Tomkins, all in that, the game was at 6-2. Sorry, 8-2, we were six points down. We were in that situation last week against St Helens when we stayed strong with it.”