Catalan miss out on home tie

Scott Dureau missed with a goal attempt as Warrington hung on to secure a narrow 14-12 win
8 September 2013

Scott Dureau missed a late penalty attempt which would have earned Catalan Dragons a home Super League play-off against Hull next weekend.

The Dragons trailed by two points late in the game against Warrington when Dureau missed his penalty attempt and the home side lost 14-12.

Brett Hodgson had sent in Chris Riley for what proved to be a match-winning try 10 minutes from time that means the French side will now travel to the KC Stadium to face the Challenge Cup finalists as they look to give veteran Steve Menzies a fairytale send-off before he retires.

The home side were architects of their own downfall as they repeatedly dropped the ball and gifted the Wolves field position to build their early lead.

Warrington opened the scoring in the 12th minute following superb build-up play by Lee Briers, Hodgson and Chris Bridge which allowed Rhys Evans to slide over in the right corner despite Leon Pryce's best efforts to push him into touch.

Hodgson missed the resulting conversion, but added two points 10 minutes later as Stefan Ratchford extended the Warrington lead with a try under the posts that owed much to Ben Westwood's quick thinking and pass to Warrington's half-back.

Catalan continued to press and Menzies thought he had scored with a try but the referee ruled that Hodgson had grounded the ball.

Catalan did get on the scoreboard six minutes before the interval when Dureau intercepted Ratchford's pass and raced 70 metres to score. Dureau added the conversion to narrow the scores to 10-6 to the visitors at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.

The game continued in a scrappy fashion after the break and it was not until 62 minutes that Menzies touched down Dureau's kick through and with the resulting conversion the Dragons took the lead for the first time in the game.

It was left to Chris Riley and Hodgson to break the Catalan hearts as the Warrington full-back sent out a wide pass to send in Riley in the left corner.

Warrington survived a late penalty attempt from Dureau as he missed with a goal attempt, the visitors hanging on to secure a narrow 14-12 win.

Meanwhile, Bradford put a reserve Huddersfield side to the sword to complete the Super League double over the table-toppers in a one-sided 58-6 win at Odsal.

The Bulls took full advantage of Giants coach Paul Anderson's decision to rest all but four members of the team that clinched the league leaders' shield to run in five tries in each half for a welcome win that secures them a ninth-place finish.

Stand-off Jarrod Sammut led the way with four tries and centre Keith Lulia marked his farewell appearance with a hat-trick as Bradford bounced back well from a shock home defeat by London Broncos which was labelled an embarrassment by captain Matt Diskin.

It was all a far cry from the joyous scenes which greeted Huddersfield's league-clinching 40-0 win over Wakefield last Sunday but Anderson will be unperturbed by a sixth defeat of the season as he eyes on Thursday's qualifying play-off against Wigan and the chance to move to within 80 minutes of a maiden Grand Final.

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