Wildcats rally past Catalans

Dale Morton scored twice as Wakefield Wildcats maintained their 100 percent start in the engage Super League with a 28-20 success over Catalans Dragons at the Hearwell Stadium.

Morton, a 19-year-old product of the the club's youth system, benefited from two Danny Brough passes as the Wildcats overturned a 16-10 deficit in the second half.

Glenn Morrison also touched down in the Wakefield recovery, adding to earlier tries from Dale Ferguson and Luke George.

Catalans were without playmaker Thomas Bosc and suffered a further blow on the morning of the game as full-back Clint Greenshields went down ill.

The visitors twice led after tries from Dimitri Pelo, Olivier Elima and Sebastian Martins, while Chris Walker added a late score to reduce their final margin of defeat.

Locked

The match was locked at 10-10 after an even first half. Wakefield started superbly with Tevita Leo-Latu breaking up the middle before spreading wide for Danny Brough to put Ferguson over for the opener after four minutes.

Brough added the extras and the Wildcats threatened again as Morton broke clear only to be hauled down by Elima.

A Brough kick was then well taken in the air by Sean Gleeson but the Dragons got back to prevent him touching down.

Catalans finally got themselves into the game as they pieced together a superb move after 13 minutes.

Adam Mogg and Setaimata Sa combined to send Steven Bell down the right.

The winger was caught in the corner but play was quickly switched to the left and the overstretched Wildcats defence could not prevent Jean-Philippe Baile sending Pelo over.

Wakefield responded as Leo-Latu broke from deep but Casey McGuire denied him with a fine tackle.

Catalans then hit straight back and McGuire was on hand at the other end to set up Elima for a converted try with a neat offload.

But they could not retain their lead and Wakefield levelled before the interval as George seized a Jason Demetriou kick to the corner.

Punished

The French side suffered a further blow as Dallas Johnson was sin binned for persistent infringement but that did not stop them reclaiming the lead as Martins barged over early in the second half.

Again the French could not hold their advantage and Wakefield took charge with two tries in as many minutes.

Brough created the first with a pass for Morton to claim his first and then Ben Jeffries pierced the line on halfway to lay on Morrison's first Wakefield try.

Morton then settled the match 11 minutes from time as he stooped to gather a long Brough pass on the bounce and powered over.

Brough added his third goal to ensure the Wildcats had revenge for last year's play-off loss to the Dragons.

The one potential concern for Wakefield was the loss of new signing Paul Johnson, who left the field through injury just minutes after coming off the bench for his debut.