Challenge Cup: Catalans Dragons 36-24 Wakefield Trinity
- Published
Highlights: Mead stars as rampant Catalans beat Wakefield
Coral Challenge Cup sixth round |
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Catalans Dragons (20) 36 |
Tries: Mead 3, Yaha, Garcia, Whitley Goals: Maloney 6 |
Wakefield Trinity (6) 24 |
Tries: Pitts 2, Arona, Miller Goals: Hampshire 4 |
David Mead scored a hat-trick of tries as Catalans Dragons beat Wakefield Trinity to set up a Challenge Cup quarter-final against Salford.
Josh Drinkwater created Catalans' three first-half touchdowns, two of them for Mead and the other for Fouad Yaha, while Jay Pitts replied for Wakefield.
Pitts' second score took Trinity back within eight points, only for the French club to pull clear once more.
Ben Garcia, Mead and Matt Whitley all crossed in the last 25 minutes.
Tinirau Arona and Jacob Miller grabbed late consolations for Trinity, but the game was already long gone.
Catalans thrashed Wakefield 58-0 in Super League seven days prior to their Challenge Cup meeting but this, despite another wide gap in the scoreline, was a much more competitive and feisty affair played in wet conditions in Huddersfield.
Drinkwater's kicking was on point throughout, leading to four of Catalans' six tries.
Wakefield briefly threatened a second-half comeback but a quick trio of scores from Catalans, coming immediately after both teams had a player sin-binned for 10 minutes following a melee, sent the tie firmly in the Dragons' favour.
Three of the quarter-finals have now been confirmed, with Wigan awaiting the winners of the one outstanding sixth-round tie between Hull FC and Castleford.
That game was also scheduled to take place on Saturday, but was postponed and will now be played on Sunday, 13 September after several Hull players tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
Catalans head coach Steve McNamara: "It was a really tough game. I thought we really rolled our sleeves up. Wakefield were tough and tenacious and we had to dig deep to get the win.
"We fought our way out of some tough periods in the game and to concede the last two tries was really disappointing after the way we had defended."
Wakefield head coach Chris Chester: "I certainly cannot question the players' attitude this week. There was plenty of spirit but we were just not good enough on the day.
"I'm satisfied with the response but obviously I'm not satisfied with the result. We genuinely thought we could come here today and get a win so we're extremely disappointed.
Catalans: Mourgue; Davies, Mead, Folau, Yaha; Maloney, Drinkwater; Maria, McIlorum, Casty, Whitley, J Tomkins, Garcia.
Interchanges: Jullien, Goudemand, Baitieri, Kasiano.
Wakefield: A Walker; Jowitt, Croft, Tupou, Senior; Hampshire, Miller; Fifita, K Wood, Arona, Pitts, Ashurst, Westerman.
Interchanges: Crowther, Navarrete, Tangata, Kopczak.
Referee: Chris Kendall