Round 24
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 34 d. Les Catalans Dragons 14

2006 English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: English Super League

Wildcats still fighting
Tue August 15, 2006
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats took another step closer to engage Super League survival with back-to-back wins for only the second time this season as they beat Catalans Dragons 34-14.

And the revenge win over Catalans also turned the heat up on relegation rivals Wigan Warriors and Castleford Tigers - winners and losers respectively over the weekend.

Catalans trailed 20-2 at half time but it could have been much worse.

Twice the French side were reduced to 12 players with a two-minute overlap of sin-binnings knocking them back to 11 at one stage in a one-sided first half.

Wildcats continued where they left off the previous week at Castleford, and must also have been buoyed by the news the Tigers had been hammered 72-4 earlier in the day by St Helens.

Five penalties conceded by the Dragons inside the opening eight minutes contributed to Wakefield's supremacy.

Skipper Jason Demetriou opened the try account on nine minutes and midway through the half centre Ryan Atkins showed tremendous strength to power his way over.

Six minutes later man-of-the-match Jamie Rooney danced through six defenders to go in by the upright.

And the halfback landed a couple of conversions and two penalty goals before Catalans finally found their feet in the closing seconds.

Jones broke the Dragons' first-half duck with a penalty on the half-time hooter, which also resulted in Wakefield being reduced to 12 men - again for a holding-down offence.

Dragons picked things up at the start of the second half and touched down through Mark Hughes just four minutes in. Stacey Jones converted.

But Wildcats regained their first-half enthusiasm and just after the hour Sam Obst broke, found Ben Jeffries on his left shoulder and Jeffries fed halfback partner Rooney on his inside to take the scoring pass.

Rooney converted to bring his personal points haul to 20, and he made that 26 six minutes from time when he completed his hat trick - kicking through and diving on the ball a split second before Jeffries.

Dragons' key motivator Jones, stretched out a hand for a consolation try on 69 minutes which he also converted to keep the game alive.

Source: www.superleague.co.uk

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