Catalans 37-16 Castleford: Dragons in play-off hunt after beating Tigers
Last Updated: 23/04/19 12:57am
Julian Bousquet scored two tries as Catalans Dragons beat Castleford 37-16 to keep on the tails of the top five play-off contenders in the Betfred Super League.
Bousquet opened the scoring in the 11th minute, charging on to Alrix Da Costa's pass to score under the posts despite the best efforts of Liam Watts and Daniel Smith. Sam Tomkins added the conversion to give the hosts a six-point advantage.
The Dragons doubled their lead in the 24th minute. Tomkins found the hard working Matt Whitley down the left edge before his offload to Gigot saw the full-back dummy his way over to score. Tomkins added the conversion.
Gigot and Greg Bird were impressive when they scrambled back to deny Greg Eden in the left corner, although Eden did score three minutes before half-time when McShane's kick to the in-goal saw him collect and touch down to bring the Tigers back into the game at 12-4, although Peter Mata'utia missed the conversion attempt.
Greg Bird extended the Catalans lead eight minutes into the second half. Smart interplay down the right between Gigot, Samisoni Langi and David Mead saw Mead kick ahead and the ball was collected by Castleford's James Clare - but Bird tackled Clare and stole the ball and dived over to score, with Tomkins again converting.
Castleford's day went from bad to worse just before the hour when captain Michael Shenton went off with an ankle injury. Gigot added a drop goal shortly after to extend the hosts' advantage to 15 points.
Bousquet got his second try on the hour, supporting Sam Kasiano close to the line as the former Kiwi international tipped the ball on to the French prop, who touched down to the left of the posts. Tomkins' conversion made it 25-4.
Eden's second try came from a short restart, Tomkins knocked the ball back and Eden collected the loose ball and raced over to score down the left. Mata'utia added the conversion.
Cory Aston supported Greg Minikin's break down the right to touch down to the right of the posts with 11 minutes remaining - and when Mata'utia kicked the extras the home side's lead was down to nine points.
However, Tomkins took the ball to the Castleford line before offloading to the supporting Matt Whitley to touch down for the match-clinching try, which Tomkins converted.
Tomkins added the gloss with a try in the last minute, touching down following a smart offload from Whitley. Tomkins added the conversion to take his personal tally to 18 points and complete the scoring.
