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| Sherwin picks Wire pockets |
The kid's alright |
It was the Catalans big weekend in Perpignan with a big Warrington following making the trip for this preview to the Challenge Cup Semi-Final in two weeks time. The French side were welcoming the 100,000th English supporter to Perpignan and with it had planned a big weekend of celebrations. Warrington were looking to spoil the party and clock up a win that would keep them on the heels of Wigan at the top of the table. For the Dragons, it was a case of re-kindling some pride after a poor performance against Crusaders last weekend.
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From the off the Dragons looked to rip up the form book, dominate and play with a freedom and style that saw them go within eighty minutes of the Grand Final last season, and in the seventh minute, Freddie Vaccari out-paced Chris Hicks to pounce on a perfectly weighted Thomas Bosc kick following good work by the hard-working Jamal Fakir. Bosc converted the try to give the hosts a dream start.
Catalans coach Kevin Walters looked a relieved man after his side clinched only their fifth win of the campaign. "I'm happy with our performance today, we did some good things, there were a couple of times in the first half that we were soft in defence, but generally I thought it was a great effort from the guys. They responded very nicely from some harsh, and probably deserved criticism from many quarters after last week's performance.
"We have managed to get a result and performance tonight and it means a lot to us given our tally and where we are in the table and every week does count. Regardless of who we were playing today we knew that if we could manage to slide a win in there we could get some momentum going into next week and then of course the match the week after. That's all today was about really, getting some momentum in the way we play."
With the challenge cup semi-final on the horizon Walters was keen to point out that his side were still under-dogs despite the victory. "We're very fortunate to be involved in the Challenge Cup still, and unlike Warrington, we haven't had a lot of luck in the Super League, they're going for two competitions so perhaps that might be a disadvantage for them, but they're a strong outfit and we've got to play better and get a bit of luck, like we did tonight."
Inevitably, Warrington levelled through a superb seventy metre effort by Hicks that saw a Bosc kick charged down by Michael Monaghan and collected by the Warrington rake who handed the ball onto Hicks for the winger to race through and out-pace the cover to the try line. Ben Westwood added the simple goal from in-front of the posts to level the scores.
Just minutes later, Warrington thought they had taken the lead, but a Richie Myler effort was ruled out for offside after replays showed the young half-back was just offside from Simon Grix's kick through.
The hosts went in front again through Dane Carlaw, after Brent Sherwin took the ball to the line and put out a superb flick pass to the big Australian who brushed off the would-be tackle of Richie Mathers to touch down. Bosc added the goal to again give the Catalans a six-point lead. The home side extended that lead just five minutes later with a try that mirrored Vaccari's earlier effort. After a penalty for a high shot on Mickaël Simon, the Dragons gained good field position and Sherwin was again the architect as he put in a kick for Bell to touchdown just before the in-goal line. Bosc failed with his conversion attempt from the touchline.
The Dragons were in dream land and thought they had gone further in front with the move of the match that saw Cyril Stacul take an inside pass from Bosc and break clear. He found the supporting Olivier Elima, who in turn found Casey McGuire, but video referee Stuart Cummings ruled the try out for an earlier obstruction by Elima.
On the back of that penalty, Warrington found their way back into the game two minutes before half time when a Richie Mathers wide pass found Hicks unmarked and the Australian wingman went over in the corner. Westwood failed to add the two points from the touchline and the Wolves trailed by six points. The visitors drew level on the half-time hooter when Grix went through a big hole in the Catalans defence. After a superb ball by Lee Briers, Grix drew the cover and passed to the supporting Jon Clarke to touch down under the posts, Westwood again converting from in front of the posts.
Stacul opened the scoring in the second half when a Dallas Johnson delayed pass found the stand-in full-back lurking at the back of the ruck. Bosc converted the try to give the Dragons another six point lead. Just four minutes later, a bell-ringing tackle saw Chris Riley drop the ball and gifted field position to the home side. From that position, Bosc managed give a rampaging Rémi Casty an inside ball that saw the French international go over the line to increase the Catalans lead. Bosc again added the extra two points to push the Dragons two scores in front.
It took Warrington ten minutes to get over the start to the second half the Dragons had hit them with, and it was David Solomona who produced a dream pass out to Vinnie Anderson to go over to bring the Wolves back into the game, Westwood again adding the conversion to narrow the Catalans lead to six points.
With seventeen minutes to go, the hosts forced the first goal-line drop-out of the match and with the repeat set of six, extended their lead when Brent Sherwin kicked a drop-goal to give the Dragons a seven point lead. That one point looked vital with four minutes to go when Briers managed to step his way to the Dragons line after a period of sustained pressure by the Wolves attacking the hosts' line. Westwood quickly added the extra two points to give the crowd a nail-biting finish to the game. However, it was the Dragons who saw out the game to win this warm-up in the run-up to the Challenge Cup Semi-Final in two weeks time.
Warrington coach Tony Smith was upbeat, despite his side's loss to the bottom of the table side. WWe started a bit flat today, and I thought our opponents outplayed us today and deserved their win. They showed great desire, and there was some great desire in my team as well. We showed some great character to fight back on each occasion the Catalans shot out ahead, and to be honest I thought we were quite fortunate when a try was disallowed in the first half and to me it looked like a good try. We were behind the eight-ball today from the start but we'll go away and lick our wounds and come back stronger for it."
Smith was disappointed with his side's first half performance. "We had a good five minutes going into half-time but in the first thirty-five minutes weren't terribly great for us. We got an opportunity to put on some points going into half-time but we didn't build on that, and that was disappointing. In the second half we lifted ourselves at times, but in the end we left ourselves just too much to do. There were some areas that we became frustrated with, and we will have to go and fix those up and try and put in a performance next week."
Looking ahead to next week against St Helens, Smith was optimistic his team could pick themselves up. "It doesn't matter who beats us, we won't sulk about it. We get ready for our next game and we'll turn our attention to Saints after we review this game. We'll go through the process in the same way as if we had won tonight. I'm sure the boys will be ready for Saints next week."
Dane Carlaw was again superb in the centres and picks up one player of the season point. Second in the voting was Cyril Stacul who has made the most of the opportunities presented to him. He's a feisty little character as well. But top, with three points and the sang-et-or.net man of the match award was Brent Sherwin, the matchwinner. It's fair to say his signing was seen by many, some from this parish, as a desperation move, but he's settled quickly and his kicking game has added something the Dragons were lacking before his arrival.
MATCH FACTS
DRAGONS 29-28 WARRINGTON
| | DRAGONS | T | G | DG | | WARRINGTON | T | G | DG |
| 26 | Stacul | 1 | | |
1 | Mathers | | | |
| 2 | Bell | 1 | | |
5 | Hicks | 2 | | |
| 3 | Raguin | | | |
17 | Grix | | | |
| 18 | Carlaw | 1 | | |
23 | Atkins | | | |
| 28 | Vaccari | 1 | | |
2 | Riley | | | |
| 7 | Bosc | | 4 | |
6 | Briers | 1 | | |
| 30 | Sherwin | | | 1 |
7 | Myler | | | |
| 24 | Casty | 1 | | |
8 | Morley | | | |
| 9 | McGuire | | | |
9 | Monaghan | | | |
| 22 | Fakir | | | |
13 | Harrison | | | |
| 11 | Elima | | | |
27 | V Anderson | 1 | | |
| 12 | Mounis | | | |
12 | Westwood | | 4 | |
| 13 | Johnson | | | |
26 | Solomona | | | |
| 4 | Sa | | | |
10 | Carvell | | | |
| 10 | Guisset | | | |
15 | Clarke | 1 | | |
| 27 | Simon | | | |
19 | Cooper | | | |
| 19 | Touxagas | | | |
22 | McCarthy | | | |
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