Dragons v Saints match report
Catalans Dragons (8) 42
T : Vincent Duport 2, Michael Oldfield 3, Ian Henderson, Thomas Bosc, Daryl Millard
G : Thomas Bosc 5
Saint-Helens (0) 0
T :
G :
Michael Oldfield scored a hat-trick of tries as Catalan Dragons maintained their excellent home form with a shock 42-0 thumping of St Helens.
Following a nip-and-tuck first half, the Dragons ran in 34 points in the final 26 minutes and successfully shut out the woeful Saints, who capitulated in the closing stages in Perpignan.
Thomas Bosc added five conversions to his try, while Vincent Duport crossed twice and Ian Henderson and Daryl Millard each touched down once.
With new signing Sam Williams not deemed to be available for the Dragons, they reverted to the half-back combination of Bosc and Leon Pryce, who looked to get the better of his former team.
It was the hosts that opened the scoring in the eighth minute, Bosc's high kick was knocked on by St Helens' Tommy Makinson and Duport collected the ball and touched down in the corner.Just two minutes later, Makinson had a try controversially ruled out as Paul Wellens' pass to the St Helens winger was ruled to have travelled forward.
The score remained 4-0 right up to the 38th minute, despite the video referee being called up on a further four occasions, then on a last tackle play Pryce launched a bomb to the right corner and Oldfield outjumped Matt Dawson to score.
After the break, both sides looked to trouble the scorers with St Helens looking the more dangerous. Only last gasp tackles from Pryce and Louis Anderson prevented St Helens from scoring their first points of the night.
However, it was Catalans who extended their lead, as Duport shrugged off one defender to race over to score under the posts, with Bosc adding his first conversion to take the score to 14-0.
Just after the hour mark the Dragons extended their lead further, Henderson powering over from close range after good work by Jeff Lima.
With 12 minutes remaining, Catalans put on the try of the night, Eloi Pelissier scooting away down the short side, flicking the ball inside to Ben Pomeroy who raced clear, drew the cover and passed inside to the supporting Bosc who crossed for his 1,000th point for the Dragons in Super League.
Two minutes later, Catalans were adding the gloss to their win, Anderson breaking clear before passing inside to Morgan Escare who offloaded to the supporting Bosc.
This time Bosc chose to throw a long pass out to the right and Oldfield stepped inside to score in the corner.
With four minutes remaining, Millard broke away from the St Helens defence and raced clear to score under the posts before St Helens' misery was compounded with 20 seconds remaining as Oldfield completed his hat-trick.
