Vincent Duport stars as Catalans Dragons brush aside Salford Red Devils
Last Updated: 17/04/17 8:03pm
A hat-trick from Vincent Duport helped Catalans Dragons secure a vital 38-6 win over Salford on Monday to ease the pressure on head coach Laurent Frayssinous.
The home side have now won three games in a row since their 38-18 home defeat to Wakefield forced crisis talks and Frayssinous being given three games to save his job.
He and his team responded with away wins at Leigh and Huddersfield and added another at home as Duport's three tries and a stand-out performance from Luke Walsh set up the win.
Catalans were without long-term absentees Luke Burgess, Jodie Broughton and Greg Bird. Brayden Williame also missed out for the home side with a calf injury picked up in the win at Huddersfield last Wednesday.
The Red Devils welcomed back Todd Carney, making his first start for the Red Devils against his former team.
Catalans had the better of the first half, running into a 14-0 lead. Richie Myler almost opened the scoring in the fifth minute before Duport did score in the ninth minute. Good work from Walsh and Iain Thornley saw the ball sent
out to Duport, who powered his way over to score in the left corner and Luke Walsh added the goal to give the hosts a six-point advantage.
Catalans continued to dominate proceedings and Myler was again close, being held up after Walsh's chip ahead rebounded back to the Catalans off the Salford crossbar.
Salford came into the game with two days' less rest than their opponents and their task was made more difficult with the loss of first Logan Tomkins (concussion) and then Junior Sa'u (adductor) through injury.
Duport added his second try of the game on the half-hour. Louis Anderson lost the ball over the line attempting to touch down but the ball was judged to have gone backwards and Duport won the race to touch down the loose ball.
Walsh was again accurate with the conversion and the lead was 12-0.
Walsh extended the lead three minutes before the interval with a penalty conceded close to the Salford line by Michael Dobson.
The home side continued in a similar vein in the second half, taking only 11 minutes to extend their lead. Richie Myler's last-tackle kick to the right corner was taken above his head by Krisnan Inu, who ran around towards the posts
to touch down. Walsh added the extras to take the score to 20-0.
On the hour mark, Salford were handed a lifeline when another Catalans kick to the right was plucked out of the air by Justin Carney, who raced 100 metres to score for the visitors. Gareth O'Brien added the conversion.
The bounce of the ball was on Catalans' side three minutes later as a Luke Walsh kick downfield sat up and evaded O'Brien and bounced perfectly into the hands of the chasing Richie Myler, who touched down to seal the win. Walsh added the conversion and the lead was back to 20 points at 26-6.
Tony Gigot scored his third try in as many appearances since his return to the side as he intercepted Robert Lui's pass and raced 70 metres to score in the right corner. Walsh missed the conversion attempt and the score remained 30-6.
Two Walsh drop-goals extended the Catalans lead to 32-6 before Duport marked his 200th career appearance with a hat-trick when he latched onto Thomas Bosc's kick to the left corner to score the conversion from Gigot making it 38-6.
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