Super League Round 26 Match Report: Catalans Dragons vs London Broncos

Despite giving everything to seal the win which firmly moves us off the bottom of the table, the Broncos left Perpignan empty handed as Catalans showed their individual quality to score two second half try’s which keeps them in Playoff contention moving into the final week of the regular season.

Nobody in the South of France would have thought that the Broncos would have defended so valiantly and used their chances so effectively when the Dragons kicked to the Broncos from right to left at 9pm French time.

The first few minutes of the game revealed very quickly the intentions of both sides- Catalans were looking to physically power their way through the Broncos defence and the Broncos were not going to go down in today’s fixture without a fight. In the fifth minute, Navarette got over the try line but was held up after a dropped Kershaw interception attempt, gifting the home side some great field position. Thankfully, nothing came of the rest of this set and London ended up winning the penalty after Catalans were offside from the scrum after a knock on.

The biggest fright of the first half for London came in the sixteenth minute as Kershaw decided to bite on defence and go for the tackle on Yaha but Abdul faked the pass and threw to the winger, Romano, who had acres of space to break but once more, London defend very well as Campagnolo got across to make the tackle.

London had a moment just two minutes later, in the eighteenth minute, where Rourke caught Leyland’s high kick just a few meters away from the Catalans try line but his attempted pass to Bassett went forward which was very unfortunate for London as if the pass met the hands of Bassett in a legal manor, it would have been a certain try.

From this point up until the 30^th minute it was all out pressure from Catalans and absolute heroic defence for the Broncos. Sam Tompkins particularly was impactful in this period as he used his years of experience to get the home side in dangerous positions. However, the Dragons could just not get the ball over the try line as the Broncos held up potential try’s on two more occasions to keep the score level.

It was in the 30^th minute that London got the breakthrough. The move began on the halfway line as Catalans conceded a scrum due to a forward pass and, after a couple of powerful phases by Bienek & Waine to move the team forward, Campagnolo did well to notice the quick defensive line of Catalans and, after a couple of fake passes to potential receivers, made a longer pass across the field to Lee Kershaw who can run over to score. Leyland makes the conversion and makes the score 0-6 with a few minutes left of the first half.

There was a brief nervy moment for London before the half time buzzer went as Rourke was dragged out of play by the Dragons defence on the first phase just 15m away from the Broncos try line but a handling error by Catalans neutralised their attacking opportunity.  London took the scrum, played two phases and saw the half out to get back into the sheds with the lead.

HALF TIME- CATALANS DRAGONS 0-6 LONDON BRONCOS

As we got into the second half it was clear to see that the Broncos came out of the dressing room with the same intensity and determination which they had been playing with in the first half. Two errors by Catalans, one a knock on and the second a high shot on Lovell, gave London opportunities to add to their lead which Leyland made the most of as he used the latter offence to take a shot at goal which he successfully converted giving London a two score lead just three minutes into the second half.

The beginning of Catalans’ second half attacking threat came in the 49^th minute as the video referee took time off to see whether it was Miloudi or Tom Davies had got the final touch off Tompkin’s high kick to the Broncos try line to take the ball dead. After deciding that it was Miloudi’s touch which knocked the ball dead, the Broncos took the goal line drop out which the Dragons made the most of as Jarrod Wallace received the offload from McMeeken on the try line to go over and score.

The try scored by Wallace appeared to have given Catalans some attacking life and the Broncos nearly conceded another just four minutes later as Kershaw panicked under the high ball and miscued, gifting Romano a golden opportunity at scoring but his final pass was forward and intercepted by Natoli anyways, giving London the ball back.

Catalans’ second try of the half came in the sixtieth minute as Romano took control & grounded the chip through on the fifth & with Morgue’s second conversion, Catalans placed themselves in a winning position for the first time in the fixture. An interesting statistic to note from these two try’s is that both came within a minute of London giving away a repeat set of six- it just goes to show the ruthless nature of the highest division and that there isn’t a team in Super League who can afford to give anything away without it being punished.

Between this try and the 67^th minute, there was a lot of mistakes from both sides which gifted their opponents scrums & penalties. In the 64^th minute, Jacob Jones lost control of the ball in the tackle  which was almost immediately followed by Catalans spilling the ball forward and giving London back their field position.

The moment which really determined the rest of the second half came in the 67^th minute where Satae put in a late shot on Leyland and was put in the bin, effectively meaning that Catalans would have to close out the game with only 12 men. This is where you could see that London had been given a spring in their step and it would be fair to claim that Catalans were slightly hanging on defensively.

However, as has been the story for much of the season, our mistakes cost us. On the fifth, Campagnolo put a chip through which Kennedy knocked on and then moments later, Kennedy gave away a penalty for a high shot which the Dragons made the most of as they used up several minutes getting themselves in order and playing their set.

This didn’t stop London’s winning desire however as the team continued progressing with intent. Unfortunately, though, in the 78^th minute, Stock dropped the pass on the 20m line which gave Catalans the opportunity to close the game out with their set which they did, and the hooter went for full time.

FULL TIME: CATALANS DRAGONS 12-8 LONDON BRONCOS

Penalties conceded: 5-4

Half-time: 0-6

Full-time: 12-8

Referee: Marcus Griffiths

Catalans Dragons

Squad:

1) Arthur Morgue, 2) Tom Davies, 3) Arthur Romano, 34) Reimis Smith, 5) Fouad Yaha, 27) Jordan Abdull, 29) Sam Tompkins, 16) Romain Navarrete, 13) Benjamin Garcia, 20) Chris Satae, 11) Tariq Sims, 15) Bailey Sironen, 8) Mike McMeeken

Interchanges: 10) Julian Bousquet, 17) Cesar Rogue, 23) Jordan Dezaria, 33) Jarrod Wallace

Try: Wallace (50), Romano (60)

Conversion: Morgue 2/2

Sin-Bin: Satae (67)

London Broncos

Squad:

23) Josh Rourke, 2) Lee Kershaw, 12) Ethan Natoli, 3) Jarred Bassett, 4) Hakim Miloudi, 20) Oli Leyland, 6) Jack Campagnolo, 8) Rob Butler, 9) Sam Davis, 19) Rhys Kennedy, 11) Will Lovell, 29) Jacob Jones, 15) Marcus Stock

Interchanges: 34) Ugo Tison, 10) Lewis Bienek, 17) Sadiq Adebiyi, 18) Emmanuel Waine

Try: Kershaw (31)

Conversion: Leyland 1/1

Sin-Bin:

Penalty kick: Leyland 1/1