Terry O’Connor claims St Helens should have had a crucial penalty

The best games are games of inches and we will be hoping for that as Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves, Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR as well as Huddersfield Giants and Wakefield Trinity collide tonight.

But that was certainly the case last night as St Helens and Catalans Dragons met in one of the games of the season as the third placed Super League and World Champions St Helens took on the league leaders.

In the end the French side claimed a vital win that was decided in the big moments to open up a six point gap on the Saints.

It became clear that this game would be one of the matches of the season early on when the first 10 minutes ticked by without an error. It was blow for blow but the Dragons had the better of the ruck and that translated to a two point lead via a Adam Keighran penalty.

The Dragons would then add to their lead when the Saints pressed and kicked crossfield with Keighran claiming the kick and setting Tom Johnstone away to run the length of the field to make it 8-0.

Then the controversial spell of the game as Saints received a number of penalties as they turned the screw against the Dragons and eventually Mark Percival was well placed to claim a lovely grubber kick to make it 8-6.

The Dragons could have re-established their lead with another try as they broke clear but Sam Tomkins was left frustrated when an offload was given as forward.

However, the Dragons would get themselves further ahead in the second half when a lovely set play put Matt Ikuvalu in at the corner as he saw off some cover defence to go in at the corner.

It would then be a case of scrambling defence from the Dragons as they tried to hold out. Will Hopoate went close but in the end it was Lewis Dodd who went over at the end of a lovely passing move to set up a grand stand finish.

In the end though Catalans clung on to a brilliant win.

It was a great game but a difficult one for the officials as you would expect in a fiery affair.

There were some big 50/50 calls and both sides will feel aggrieved by some.

At halftime, Jon Wilkin claimed that Steve McNamara would be “unhappy with the officials” after he felt Saints got “lucky” with some “tough calls” against the Dragons whilst Jenna Brooks revealed that McNamara was “angry” at the break and spoke to the match commissioner.

At the end though it was St Helens unhappy with Bill Arthur claiming Saints fans were booing off the officials at the end.

They likely felt like they should have had a penalty at the end for a strip from Romain Navarrete.

That was certainly the view of Terry O’Connor who said he felt there was “a tug” on the arm from Navarrete.

Had it been given we would have likely seen then game head into Golden Point.