Robinson - Cardace is a natural

Trent Robinson: Dragons coach watched his side crush Widnes

He's a young kid but it's nice to see a young kid play like that. He's a natural footy player. There are some technical areas he needs to work on, but he has some great speed and it's nice to see.

Trent Robinson on Damien Cardace
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Catalan Dragons coach Trent Robinson threw rookie winger Damien Cardace in for his Stobart Super League debut against Widnes and the move paid off as he ran in four tries in a 76-6 hammering of the Vikings.

The 18-year-old was one of several stand-out performers at the Stade Gilbert Brutus, setting tongues wagging with a brilliant maiden performance.

And Robinson, who has invested heavily in young, French players since taking over in Perpignan, was delighted with his performance.

"It's awesome for a young, French player to come into a French side and play like that," he said.

"I woke up this morning and was genuinely excited about Damien playing.

Speed

"He's a young kid but it's nice to see a young kid play like that. He's a natural footy player. There are some technical areas he needs to work on, but he has some great speed and it's nice to see."

Cardace hung on to the match ball despite Clint Greenshields getting a hat-trick, as the Dragons responded to last week's shock loss to Wakefield to run in 13 tries.

"I thought we started really well, which is something we haven't done in a long time, and went back and forth for a little, but improved naturally during the game," Robinson added.

"Sometimes you try and improve during the week but some teams need a game to improve and I think we got better as the game went on.

"Our combinations were worked out on the field. Obviously you try and work on them in training, but you saw a lot of talking out there between our players today, and that is something we pride our game on."

Scrum-half Scott Dureau prides his game on his kicking and he was perfect with the boot, punting 11 goals from as many attempts, leaving Widnes coach Denis Betts shaking his head in bemusement.

"Everything they did stuck," he said. "Scott Dureau kicked everything from everywhere. Usually you would expect him to miss a few but he was outstanding."

Disappointed

The Vikings have returned to the bottom of the table after another miserable defeat, and Betts added: "We have a very disappointed, beaten-up changing room.

"We started very, very slowly and before we knew it, we were 12 points down.

"They are a good side, especially with Ian Henderson back. I think anyone would have found them difficult to get near today.

"For 25-30 minutes it was very tough, and we were doing things that we were talking about during the week.

"We had a try ruled out that would have drawn us level, but they went into half-time scoring tries for fun and that was disappointing from our point of view."