26 March 2022

Catalans Dragons were pushed all the way by a spirited Featherstone Rovers in Perpignan and left it late to book their place in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals with a hard-fought win. Tries in the last 20 minutes from Tyrone May and Tom Davies spared the Dragons’ blushes against a rugged and resilient Rovers. The Super League side did not have it all their own way and it took a second-half fightback to secure cup progress after they trailed 10-8 at the break.

Featherstone were first to score when Catalans coughed up the ball in the fourth minute and second-row Josh Hardcastle put a flick pass from the tackle to allow full-back Brandon Pickersgill to cross the line, Craig Hall missing with his conversion attempt. Rovers then charged down and regained possession to put centre Joey Leilua in at the right corner, Hall adding the kick for an unexpected 10-0 scoreline after eight minutes. With May in at stand-off for the suspended Mitchell Pearce, the Dragons looked strangely disjointed early in the game but they began to claw their way back in the 18th minute when Sam Tomkins spun the ball wide to Fouad Yaha, who crossed to score at the left corner flag. Tomkins hit the post with the conversion. Then prop-forward Sam Kasiano came off the bench for Catalans and three huge bursts up the middle created the space for Yaha to score his second in the exact same spot to reduce the deficit.

Featherstone held out with some solid defence until the interval but came out fighting after the break when Leilua broke the Dragons’ defence and sprinted 60 metres and around Tomkins to complete his brace after 42 minutes, with Hall again missing the conversion. But Kasiano put Catalans level for the first time in the game when he crashed over the line beside the posts, with Tomkins converting to make it 14-14. The Dragons went ahead for the first time just after the hour mark when May side stepped through the Rovers line to score by the posts and Tomkins added the extras. Then winger Tom Davies scored inthe right corner after Rovers had been forced into a series of goal-line drop-outs from their own line. Tomkins’ touchline conversion put daylight between the sides at 26-14 with only seven minutes remaining. A drop goal by Tomkins three minutes from time sealed the victory.