Challenge Cup: Catalans Dragons 14-16 Warrington Wolves - Matty Ashton's late try sees Wire through

Matty Ashton (left) scored twice to help Warrington to victory over Catalans

Matty Ashton's late try took Warrington Wolves into the Challenge Cup quarter-finals with victory over Catalans, who missed two of their three goal-kicks.

Ashton and Matt Dufty tries and two Stefan Ratchford goals built a 12-0 lead, with Arthur Romano scoring a converted try in reply.

Catalans responded as Tom Johnstone and Matt Ikuvalu crossed, but Arthur Mourgue was unable to convert.

It proved costly as Ashton's score left the Dragons trailing by two points.

It was the second time the Wire have won in Perpignan this season, having just edged Steve McNamara's side in the league as well.

It was a repeat of the 2018 Challenge Cup final which saw Dragons make history with their first major trophy and the first time a non-English club had won the competition.

There was to be no repeat of that, despite Romano's score from Mike McMeeken's pass which preceded a second-half fightback through Tom Johnstone's trademark finish out wide and another Ikuvalu score - his third in as many appearances.

Warrington showed their class, particularly with England captain George Williams orchestrating for the opening two scores from Ashton and Dufty.

The match-winning try was a result of punishing Catalans' knock-on 10 metres out with a knockout blow, as Ashton touched down with less than three to go.

Catalans boss Steve McNamara:

"These are high-stakes games with quality teams and the consequences if you are not fully focused is you are out of the competition and that hurts.

"We were 12-0 down but we were creating problems for Warrington on attack. The problem was our discipline, ball control and the number of penalties and six-agains we conceded was really disappointing.

"We were causing them trouble and ourselves trouble by making poor decisions at the end of good plays.

"We were guilty of trying to win the game too early but we played really well after the break, we dominated the second half and I thought we should have scored more points to take the game away but fundamental errors in the last moments of the game cost us.

"We defended everything they threw at us in the second half but one play has cost us. It's not good enough, it's a play we should have stopped on the short side and we're out of the competition."

Warrington head coach Daryl Powell:

"It's a big win for us, to come here twice and win both is huge. They are a big, physical team who don't lose much here so that's a class result today.

"You have to celebrate your wins, and it was a great way to win a game today, tough for Catalans because they played really well in the second half.

"The mood's great, the boys are really buzzing and happy even though we're probably not playing our best at the moment, we're winning games against tough teams but we're not quite as fluent as we'd want to be. We're not as consistent as we want to be."

Catalans: Mourgue; Romano, Whitley, Ikuvalu, Johnstone; Pearce, Tomkins, Dezaria, McIlorum, McMeeken, Seguier, Ma'u, Garcia.

Interchanges: Bousquet, Navarrete, Taukeiaho, Zenon.

Warrington: Dufty; J. Thewlis, Mata'utia, Ratchford, Ashton; Williams, Drinkwater, Bullock, Clark, Vaughan, Currie, McGuire, Harrison.

Interchanges: Kasiano, Philbin, Walker, Dudson.

Referee: Jack Smith.