Nervy Catalans beat Broncos to stay in play-off mix

Betfred Super League

Catalans Dragons (0) 12

Tries: Wallace, Romano Goals: Mourgue 2

London Broncos (6) 8

Tries: Kershaw Goals: Leyland 2

Unconvincing Catalans Dragons came from behind to keep themselves in contention for a Super League play-off place against feisty London Broncos.

The visitors had earlier moved off the foot of the table for the first time all season, going narrowly above Hull FC on points difference, after the Black and Whites were hammered 58-4 by Salford.

The Broncos underlined their recent improvement as Lee Kershaw shocked home fans at the Stade Gilbert Brutus with a first-half try, and an Oli Leyland penalty put the Broncos eight points ahead just after the break.

The Perpignan-based side stepped it up in the second half and tries from Jarrod Wallace and Arthur Romano edged them in front.

Dragons survived having Chris Satae sin-binned and a late flurry of Broncos attacks to take a nervy win, knowing that victory at Hull FC next week, and defeats for Leigh and Leeds, would sneak them into the top six.

Arthur Romano's try gave Catalans Dragons the edge in a tight encounter with London Broncos

Broncos had occupied bottom spot for the entire season, but two wins in their last six games, and Hull FC’s capitulation against Salford, moved them up a place before they had even kicked off in France.

That situation was not expected to last long, as Catalans knew a win - and preferably a big win, with points difference a potential factor - would keep their season going beyond next week's final round of games.

Perhaps buoyed by Hull’s heavy defeat, and galvanised by the fact they are likely to be relegated regardless of league position due to the controversial IMG gradings system, Broncos not only held on but took the lead.

Catalans pounded away at the visitors' defence but there was little subtlety, combined with poor decision-making and careless errors.

By contrast, when London finally mounted an attack, Jack Campagnolo’s superb cut-out pass left winger Kershaw with enough time and space to go under the posts and make life easy for kicker Leyland.

An unhappy home crowd expected a second-half improvement but Romano’s high shot on Will Lovell gave Leyland two points and left Dragons needing two scores.

They got them in the space of 10 minutes as Wallace blasted over the line from close range and then Romano picked up Mourgue’s grubber kick to dive over. With Mourgue converting both, Catalans were in front.

They made the final stages more fraught than they should have been, with Satae’s indiscipline reducing them to 12 men and Rhys Kennedy inches away from latching onto Campagnolo’s grubber kick.

London’s heroic effort kept them second-bottom and they will stay there - without Sam Davies, who they lost with a calf strain - when they go to Warrington next Saturday, if they can better Hull FC’s result against Catalans.

Catalans Dragons coach Steve McNamara:

"It's not a great position to be in but we are doing what we can in the circumstances. We need another result or two to go our way and we have to win a game ourselves.

"Quite clearly, we are not in great form but we're going to have to find it in the next seven days. We can't afford to play like this again.

"I'm not sure what the problem was, whether it was the pressure, but we were really poor again. We're struggling to understand exactly why, but the positive thing is that we get to go down to the last weekend."

London Broncos coach Mike Eccles:

"Once again, I'm immensely proud of their effort, we were never broken down with anything significant. We handled their shape and pressure well.

"Catalans had to win to keep their dream alive and they were always going to be tough to beat. But we've given away a lot this year in terms of size of squad, quality of squad and spend on squad.

"When you haven't got any of those things you have to have togetherness and team spirit. And that's what is running us close to the opposition in games at the moment. And we'll be out there next week against Warrington with the same approach."

Catalans Dragons: Mourgue; Davies, Romano, Smith, Yaha; Abdull, Tomkins; Navarrete, Garcia, Satae, Sims, Sironen, McMeeken.

Interchanges: Bousquet, Rouge, Dezaria, Wallace

London Broncos: Rourke; Kershaw, Natoli, Bassett, Miloudi; Leyland, Campagnolo; Butler, Davis, Kennedy, Lovell, Jones, Stock

Interchanges: Tison, Bienek, Adebiyi, Waine

Referee: Marcus Griffiths