Super League: Catalans Dragons 44-16 Castleford Tigers

Scrum-half Josh Drinkwater joined Catalans in April 2018

Josh Drinkwater scored a hat-trick as Catalans Dragons swept aside Castleford to go seventh in Super League.

Drinkwater ran onto a smart Greg Bird offload for the first score, but James Clare went over in the corner and Jesse Sene-Lefao's solo try put Cas 10-8 up.

Bird, Drinkwater, Louis Anderson and Julian Bousquet all scored as Dragons romped to a 30-10 half-time lead.

The teams exchanged tries before Drinkwater's long-range effort and a Lewis Tierney try sealed the win.

The visitors' chances of moving up to third in the table looked good after a sharp response to Drinkwater's opener, but the Dragons dominated the second part of the first half.

Bird's untidy score restored the advantage, Drinkwater profited from some sloppy Cas handling for his second and Anderson's cute dummy saw him cross the line.

Bousquet then went over after some good work by Anderson just before the resumption.

The impressive Drinkwater teed up try number six with a clever kick through for Kenny Edwards to stretch the lead and, although Paul McShane went over, the hosts remained in control.

Drinkwater, who also kicked six goals, saved his best score to complete his treble, intercepting and running 70 yards before Tierney wrapped things up by going over in the corner.

Catalans coach Steve McNamara: "We played really well for a large part of that game.

"There was a little spell in the first half where we conceded those two soft tries but given the conditions and given the opposition, to do that against them, we're really, really pleased. It's up there with our best of the year.

"We're pleased to score eight tries today. We scored four away at Huddersfield, six away at Leeds and then eight tonight at home. That's really good and it's really pleasing.

"The team has got some confidence and we're finding ways to score tries that suit our style. We've just got to keep working hard and we can't take our eye of it one little bit because of the closeness of the competition."

Castleford assistant coach Danny Orr: "All credit to Catalans, I thought they were very good, but I didn't think we turned up with a good attitude.

"Defensively we had a soft attitude and they out-muscled us in a lot of departments. With the ball, we just made too many errors.

"We knew it would be a tough and physical game, they are a physical side, they're playing well and they've got a bit of momentum behind them at the moment.

"We came here expecting a very, very tough game, we just didn't turn up really. We definitely weren't the Cas side that we know we can be."

Catalans: Gigot, Tierney, Mead, Williame, Yaha, Langi, Drinkwater, Casty, McIlorum, Simon, Jullien, Garcia, Bird.

Interchanges: Anderson, Bousquet, Baitieri, Edwards.

Castleford: Laulu-Togagae, Egodo, Webster, Shenton, Clare, Ellis, Trueman, Watts, McShane, Sene-Lefao, Moors, Holmes, Massey,

Interchanges: Millington, Cook, Springer, Clark.

Referee: Robert Hicks.