Dragons Catalans (0) 13
T : Morgan Escaré, Elliott Whitehead
G : Scott Dureau 2
DG : Scott Dureau

Castleford Tigers (6) 12
T : Justin Carney, Jordan Tansey
G : Luke Gale 2
DG :

Scott Dureau marked his return to Catalans Dragons' line-up with a last-minute drop goal as they edged out Castleford Tigers by the narrowest of margins in Perpignan.

The 28-year-old half-back was making his first appearance in the First Utility Super League in nearly 12 months, following a succession of injuries, and he inspired the Dragons to a 13-12 victory.

It was the Dragons' first win of the season after defeat last weekend against St Helens, while the battling Tigers, who squandered a 22-6 lead in a 24-22 opening-round defeat to rivals Wakefield, remain pointless.

Both sides looked up for a challenge, but suffered with poor handling in the early wet conditions in southern France.

It was Castleford who opened the scoring in the 12th minute, Ben Roberts chipping to the corner for Justin Carney to race onto to score, referee Child awarding the try on approval of the video referee. Luke Gale added the touchline conversion.

With both teams having tries disallowed by the video referee, Castleford’s Denny Solomona in the 25th minute and Catalans Zeb Taia, the score remained the same up to the 38th minute.

The game erupted as the home side received a run of penalties, both teams grew frustrated and a punch-up resulted in Oliver Elima, Eloi Pelissier and Jake Webster being sent to the sin-bin.

After the interval Catalans leveled the scores, Morgan Escare pouncing on Dureau’s superb reverse kick to score under the posts with Dureau adding the conversion.

Dureau added a penalty two minutes later after Carney’s high tackle on Morgan Escare to give the hosts the lead for the first time in the game.

Elliott Whitehead then put the hosts further ahead as he scored in the right corner after Michael Oldfield knocked back Ian Henderson's high kick to Ben Pomeroy. Dureau missed the touchline conversion to take the score to 12-6.

Oldfield should have scored minutes later as Pomeroy intercepted Ben Roberts’ pass;

The big centre raced clear before Luke Gale managed to chase back and cut down the angle, and Pomeroy’s pass to the supporting Oldfield was knocked on by the winger.

Castleford then set up a grandstand finish with 73rd-minute try, Carney charging clear before passing inside to the supporting Jordan Tansey, who scored to the left of the posts. Gale added his second goal to level the scores.

With time running down, it was left to Dureau to steal the headlines with a drop-goal that went over off the post to win the game for the home team.

Team Sheet

Dragons : Escaré, Oldfield, Pomeroy, Tonga, Duport, Bosc, Dureau, Lima , Henderson, Anderson, Taia, Whitehead, Mounis
Remplaçants : Elima, Pelissier, Garcia, Baitieri

Castleford : Tansey, Solomona, Channing, Shenton, Carney, Roberts, Gale, Lynch, Moore, Millington, Holmes, Moors, Massey
Remplaçants : Webster, Wheeldon, Finn, Crossley

Attendance: 9169 

Sin Bin :
Dragons : Eloi Pelissier, Olivier Elima
Castleford : Jake Webster