A narrow win against Wakefield Trinity hands Catalans Dragons their first win of the season

On matchday two of the new Betfred Super League season, Catalans Dragons took on Wakefield Trinity at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.

A late flurry of tries from Wakefield Trinity was not enough to take the points away from Catalans as the Dragons held on for a narrow 24-22 victory. Both sides went into the game needing wins after losing their opening game of the season to St Helens and Hull FC respectively.

The main talking point of the game was the hosts dominating the game for large spells, even without major firepower in their forward pack in the form of Gil Dudson and Dylan Napa due to suspension.

Steve McNamara’s side started fast and took the lead in the ninth minute as young winger Mathieu Laguerre went over for the Dragons. Having missed the conversion, Sam Tomkins played in Fouad Yaha to extend Catalans’ lead to 8-0 just four minutes later.

With the extras being added this time around, the French outfit took a 10-0 lead after only 15 minutes of the game gone.

Wakefield then found their groove after coming out of the blocks the slower of the two teams. The prolific figure of Tom Johnstone on the Trinity wing got their first points of the game as he crashed over the line to reduce the deficit.

A player who has always impressed and given his all in a Catalan shirt, Samisoni Langi got his name on the scoresheet three minutes later with a nice finish to nullify the visitors’ threat.

After not getting the rub of the green in the first half, Wakefield’s Max Jowitt got himself a try to drag his side back into proceedings eight minutes before the half-time interval.

As the second half got underway, Catalans flew out the blocks just like they did in the first half. Having not scored since the 2020 season, Ben Garcia crashed over the line with a great effort just four minutes after the restart.

The hosts seemed to have the two points in the bag after Tomkins converted back-to-back kicks to give Catalans a 24-10 lead.

It seemed that the Dragons were closing in on their first win of the 2022 season, but another Johnstone try made for an interesting finish.

As the clock ticked down to the final five minutes, Willie Poaching’s Wakefield side grew more in confidence after being the poorer of the two sides for the majority of the match.

The lacklustre defence from Wakefield was what allowed the Dragons such a foothold in the game for so long, but late on, a bit of complacency began to creep in from a Catalans perspective.

The try from Johnstone followed by a try from Tom Lineham on the hooter was not enough for Trinity to take the two points from the grasp of the Dragons but potentially a moral victory for Wakefield as they fell to a 24-22 defeat in the south of France.

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