Catalans Dragons leave it late to defeat St Helens

Scott Dureau: Produced a strong kicking display to take his side home

Zeb Taia scored a try with four minutes remaining as Catalans Dragons recorded a 33-26 win over St Helens on Saturday.

Adam Swift scored four tries for the visitors but finished on the losing team again, having been part of the side that was beaten 42-0 in Perpignan last season.

Saints opened the scoring in the fourth minute, with Swift touching down after a mistake from Morgan Escare awarded St Helens possession close to the Catalans' line. Travis Burns missed the tough conversion.

Catalans came back into the game as the first quarter drew to a close, Todd Carney and Scott Dureau combining to give Benjamin Garcia space on the right-hand side. With the Dureau conversion, the hosts were in the lead.

The Dragons extended their advantage four minutes later through Taia , with Dureau again converting to take the score to 12-4.

Then came a score from Swift, who pushed away Escare's attempted tackle on his way to the tryline, but Burns again missed the conversion meaning the score remained 12-8.

Swift was over the line again, this time under the poles allowing an easier conversion as Saints took the lead.

Shannon McDonnell then scored under the posts five minutes before half-time following a well-worked move between Roby, Luke Walsh and Burns. With the conversion Saints led by eight points.

Catalans got back into it with Garcia’s second of the afternoon just before the break.

The first points of the second half went to Escare, who ran around his opposite number to run under the posts and give the Catalans the lead. Dureau added the simple conversion to give the hosts a four-point cushion.

Six minutes later Dureau added a penalty to increase the Catalans' lead to six points and that was required as Swift scored his fourth try nine minutes from time. Walsh took over the kicking duties and levelled the scores at 26-26.

With time running out and both sides looking to brek the deadlock, Taia took a short ball and bounced away from the St Helens defence 40 metres from the line. Space suddenly opened up for him and he raced over to score the match-winning try under the posts. Dureau added the simple conversion.

A Dureau drop goal was the final play of the game to give Catalans a vital win.