Super League: Leeds Rhinos 4-10 Catalans Dragons - Home side still without a win

Fouad Yaha scored a crucial try for Catalans, and had one chalked off too

Catalans Dragons held on to beat still winless Leeds Rhinos in a slugfest in clotting conditions at Headingley.

Both sides shared a try apiece in a gritty first 40 minutes, as Catalans winger Fouad Yaha cancelled out Blake Austin's crawling effort for the hosts.

Joe Chan sniped through to put Catalans in front after the break, and Yaha had a try ruled out for a push on covering Leeds winger Liam Tindall.

Leeds pounded away but were unable to execute the crucial score.

Boos rang out at the finish as a frustrated home support watched their side go down to a third-straight loss.

There were several casualties in a bruising affair, with Leeds losing Alex Mellor early on to a head knock, while Catalans also saw star full-back Sam Tomkins limp away with a knee problem.

Richard Agar's side showed ample effort in their bid to come up with a result on home soil, but their star halves pair of Aidan Sezer and try-scorer Austin just could not find the attacking pattern to break down a relentless Dragons team.

Even when Mitchell Pearce was sin-binned late on, the visitors just scrambled and battled to make the big defensive play, with hooker Micky McIlorum racking up tackles to keep the hosts at bay.

Agar is still without key figures like Richie Myler, David Fusitu'a and James Bentley, and with full-back Jack Walker still feeling his way back after a long injury lay-off, they lacked cohesion in attack.

Kruise Leeming rolled in some testing kicks which brought the best out of Tom Davies at the back for Catalans - another example of the graft put in by Steve McNamara's side.

Leeds coach Richard Agar:

"We bombed a load of chances, especially when they were down to 12 men.

"After last week I thought the effort was up there and our kick chase was good but our ability to execute was so far off the mark.

"We sat back too much, at times with the ball it was really painful to watch. It's something we've got to work hard on, we've got to work on our combinations.

"We were lacking a bit of firepower but we should have some personnel back next week which will help us."

Catalans boss Steve McNamara:

"It was a really tough performance. We'd not played as well as we would have liked in the first two games but I felt we thoroughly deserved the two points.

"We had to withstand a lot of pressure and I thought we did that tremendously well. With 12 men at the end we were out on feet but we somehow kept our line intact."

(On sin-binning of Mitchell Pearce) "I thought it was pathetic. It's a high tackle and a penalty but it's not a sin-binning in our game. I was really disappointed with that decision.

"We all understand the reasons the rules were brought in and we're fully on board with protecting our players but we're frustrated at the minute. We're all getting baffled by certain decisions and that was one of them."

Leeds: Walker; Tindall, Briscoe, Sutcliffe, Handley; Austin, Sezer; Oledzki, Leeming, Prior, Mellor, Gannon, Tetevano.

Interchanges: Dwyer, Smith, Thompson, O'Connor.

Catalans Dragons: Tomkins; Davies, Whare, Langi, Yaha; Pearce, Drinkwater; Dezaria, McIlorum, McMeeken, Whitley, Jullien, Garcia.

Interchanges: Seguier, May, Chan, Kasiano.

Referee: Jack Smith (RFL)

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