Dureau brings down Quins

Dureau: pulled the strings

Scott Dureau inspired Catalan Dragons to a 37-30 victory over Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop on Good Friday.

Dureau crossed for two tries as well as booting 11 points as the French side eased up the engage Super League table.

There was a sluggish start from both sides, with little in the way of enterprising play early on.

The visitors were the first to threaten, Gregory Mounis being superbly tackled just short by Luke Dorn after a break from David Ferriol on 10 minutes.

Quins were content to keep it tight, taking a safety-first approach as they looked to grab a foothold.

Positive

But it was the Catalans' positive outlook that was to be rewarded first, Steve Menzies engineering a break that allowed Dureau to race clear for the first try in the 13th minute which he converted himself.

The hosts were granted some much-needed field position thanks to a brace of Dragons indiscretions and the Londoners took advantage in the 22nd minute as Andy Ellis threw a miss-pass which allowed Jamie O'Callaghan to dart over in the corner with Luke Gale adding the extras to level the match.

Suddenly the home side had their tails up but just as it looked as though they would score again, Dureau gobbled up a loose pass and raced the length of the field to touch down.

Now it was the Dragons asking all the questions, and they added a further score in the 28th minute when Ben Farrar cut through some poor tackling, offloading for Eloi Pelissier to crash over under the sticks. Dureau slotted the conversion.

Things went from bad to worse for the hosts before half-time, Quins attempting to throw the ball around only for a turnover to allow Jason Baitieri to stroll through some pathetic tackling to score at the posts with Dureau's kick making it 22-6 to the Dragons.

With Menzies and Dureau able to create gaps almost at will, the visitors were first to threaten again after the interval, only for the ball to go to ground close to the Quins line.

Almost immediately the Londoners hauled themselves back into the contest, Tony Clubb cutting through the defence to set up Gale for a clear run to the line and he added the extras with the boot.

But just as in the first half, every time the hosts looked like staging a revival, awful defence threw that opportunity away and sure enough on 54 minutes Menzies was once again allowed to waltz through, offloading for Cyril Stacul to apply the finishing touch as the lead became 28-12.

By now though the game had really opened up and Quins were far from finished, two tries in the space of four minutes throwing the game back in the balance, with the gap cut to four points.

Muscled

Firstly Ellis burrowed over after Gale's break and then Karl Pryce muscled through four tackles to power his way to the line.

Suddenly the Dragons looked ragged, with the mercurial Dureau sin-binned shortly after the Londoners upped the tempo.

The one-man advantage was to tell as Mike Burnett opened up a gap for Chad Randall to burst home and Gale's conversion gave Quins the lead.

Mounis then levelled with a close-range penalty, before the returning Dureau slotted a drop-goal to nudge the French side back ahead. Stacul added a last-minute try which Dureau converted to extend the final winning margin out to seven points.