Scott Dureau earns Laurent Frayssinous praise after Catalan Dragons beat Castleford
Saturday 14 February 2015 20:00, UK
Laurent Frayssinous paid tribute to match-winner Scott Dureau after he returned from his injury nightmare in Catalan Dragons' 13-12 win over Castleford.
Dureau was making his first Super League appearance in almost 12 months but his career has been blighted by injury and ill-health for two years.
The 28-year-old Australian was loaned out to Sydney Roosters last year, but has returned to Perpignan determined to pay back the Dragons for standing by him.
He started doing that against the Tigers on Saturday, when his last-gasp drop goal capped an all-round superb performance as the Dragons edged home by a point after spending a spell with 11 players on the park.
"Scotty has had a tough last two years, he has come back and said to me that he wants to repay the club," Frayssinous said.
"He has shown how tough he is as a person, he has come back from a lot of adversity and shown character to perform like that.
"He can still be better, but that was very pleasing from him.
"The players dug really deep today to come back and get the two points. In the context, everything was against us today, so it is worth so much more than two points to us."
Not smart enough
Castleford coach Daryl Powell admitted defeat was difficult to take, just as it had been last weekend when they gave up a 16-point lead before losing 24-22 at home to Wakefield.
He was disappointed his side failed to take advantage of the Dragons having Olivier Elima and Eloi Pelissier sent to the sin-bin at the same time as Tigers centre Jake Webster after a fracas.
He added: "I thought we deserved something out of the game to be honest.
"In the second half, we couldn't quite get our game together, which was disappointing. We weren't the smartest team of footballers out there today as a team but we certainly were one of the most committed.
"I thought we were great in lots of ways but just lost our composure at the key moment within the game, especially when Catalans were down to 11 men.
"We should have come out of that in front and as it happened, we came out of that two points behind."
