Dragons hold off Crusaders

Blanch: touched down twice for the Dragons

Catalan Dragons backed up their impressive win over Wigan with a hard-fought 31-18 triumph over bottom club Crusaders in Perpignan.

Damien Blanch touched down twice for the hosts at Stade Gilbert Brutus, his second effort finally killing off a brave comeback bid by their opponents.

Crusaders were 24-6 down with an hour gone of the contest but converted tries from Jordan Tansey and Jarrod Sammut set up a thrilling finish.

However a Scott Dureau drop goal gave the Dragons a bit of breathing space before Blanch touched down in the final minute to seal the result.

Hit back

The two non-English teams in the top flight played out a scoreless first quarter before Clinton Schifcofske kicked the visitors ahead with a 22nd minute penalty after a high tackle by David Ferriol.

Catalan, who would have taken the lead in the opening stages had Jean-Philippe Baile not spilled the ball as he dived over the line, soon hit back.

Ian Henderson, Dureau and Setaimata Sa were all involved in the build-up before Clint Greenshields passed onto Daryl Millard to go over on the left.

Dureau added the conversion and was also on target with his kick seven minutes later when Baile made amends for his earlier miss by diving over.

Having trailed 12-2 at the break, Crusaders were gifted a chance to cut the gap after 52 minutes when David Ferriol's knock-on let in Lloyd White.

Schifcofske hit the post with his conversion attempt, and just three minutes later Sa crashed over to score from Dureau's short pass.

The game looked over when, from the restart, the Dragons scorched down the field for Blanch to score from over 40 metres out down the right touchline.

Kicking prowess

Dureau again showed his kicking prowess by adding the touchline conversion, and at that stage the two points appeared to be in the bag.

Crusaders, though, refused to go away and gave themselves a lifeline when Tansey stepped and jinked his way to the try line with 12 minutes to play.

Sammut then chipped over the full-back and won the foot race to score under the posts, leaving Schifcofske a simple conversion to make it a six-point gap.

That, though, was as close as the Wrexham based outfit got.

Dureau slotted over a one-pointer to increase the Catalan lead to seven points and then Blanch added his second try of the night to seal the win.

The result means Trent Robinson's side have now lost just one of their last 10 league outings, with that run including two triumphs over the Warriors.