Hull FC romp to 38-10 victory over Catalans Dragons
By Mark Crellin
Last Updated: 13/02/16 9:44pm
Hull FC made it two wins from two to start the First Utility Super League season as they cruised to an impressive 38-10 win over Catalans Dragons in Perpignan.
The visitors had not won in France since 2010 but Fetuli Talanoa scored two tries and created another as they followed up their opening win over Salford.
A crowd in excess of 10,000 were in attendance and they saw the visitors produced some delightful rugby, finishing with seven tries.
The sides exchanged scores early on, Tanaloa going over for Hull before Pat Richards scored the first of his two tries for the hosts.
Hull's Mark Minichello then made a try for Sika Manu and Marc Sneyd added the conversion.
However, the Dragons responded through Richards once again, the former Wigan winger going over in the corner after a pair of lovely passes from Todd Carney and Richie Myler.
And Richards also landed the conversion from the touchline to level the scores at 10-10.
But that was the final score of the game for Catalans and Hull began to ease clear, Josh Bowden powering over from 10 metres out on a short-side play and Jack Logan pouncing on an error by Olivier Elima to score again before the interval.
Marc Sneyd converted both tries to give Hull a 22-10 lead at the break and it was one-way traffic in the second period, as Hull added three more tries and had two ruled out by the video ref, despite having Leon Pryce sin-binned for 10 minutes.
While the former Dragon was absent, Sneyd extended the advantage with a penalty goal, and Hull captain Gareth Ellis then touched down just short of the hour, latching onto Sneyd's grubber kick to the in-goal area after Mark Minichiello had been stopped short of the line.
Talanoa added his second try of the game soon afterwards, Pryce and Sneyd moving the ball wide and Carlos Tuimavave popping up with the key pass.
And Talanoa then played a key role in the best, and final, try of the match, racing away from acting-half 10 metres out from his own line and then putting Jamie Shaul away for a cracking score.