Catalans 0-46 Salford: Red Devils in eight try rout of Dragons
Last Updated: 09/03/19 8:15pm
Salford secured their first win in Perpignan in eight years with a 46-0 hammering of Catalans Dragons.
The home side looked like they were still celebrating their one-point win over Warrington last weekend as the Red Devils dominated throughout.
Jake Bibby made his first start of the season, replacing the injured Junior Sa'u, and scored two tries as well as having a hand in three more.
Catalans rang the changes following their 23-22 win last weekend, Matt Whitley replacing Tony Gigot and Jason Baitieri coming in for Mickael Simon.
The Red Devils opened the scoring in the eighth minute. An early scrum allowed them the field position they needed to launch an attack and, after Gil Dudson went close to the Catalans line on the last tackle, Joey Lussick dummied left and dived right to catch the Dragons defenders napping.
Ken Sio added the conversion to give the visitors a 6-0 lead and then kicked a penalty after Michael McIlorum was judged to be offside at the play the ball.
Two minutes before the break another penalty invited the Red Devils close to the Catalans line and Robert Lui put George Griffin through a hole with a short ball to score.
With time running down to the interval, Catalans looked to attack down the right-hand side but the ball went to ground and was picked up by Sio, who handed on to the supporting Jackson Hastings.
Hastings found Sio who kicked ahead and chased, but while attempting to touch down he was pushed without the ball by Lewis Tierney and it bounced loose for Bibby to score.
Sio hit the post with his conversion attempt to take the half-time score to 18-0.
Within seconds of the second half restarting Salford and Bibby were over again.
Niall Evalds offloaded to the supporting Bibby who raced 60 metres and exchanged passes with Hastings before touching down in the left corner.
Sio made it 24-0 and just five minutes later Salford were over again. A Bibby break and offload down the left and a kick ahead from Evalds found Hastings who put in Griffin, supporting on the inside, to touch down under the posts for his second try.
Hastings was the next Salford player to go over after smart play by Bibby down the left, dummying out wide and flicking the ball inside to the supporting Australian to increase the Salford lead to 34-0.
Salford continued to run riot, with Evalds adding the seventh try of the game, following up on good work by Lussick and Hastings.
Catalans' best opportunity to score came 13 minutes from time as Samisoni Langi looked to pick up and dart over from close range, but the strong Salford defence managed to hold up the half-back.
With two minutes remaining, Sio was the beneficiary of more slick handling from the Red Devils as he raced over down the left and ran in under the posts, kicking the conversion to take his personal points tally to 18.