Salford seal 32-16 Super League win over Catalans Dragons
By PA
Last Updated: 01/04/18 7:21pm
Salford made it three successive home wins in Super League with a 32-16 victory over bottom-of-the-table Catalans Dragons.
Salford recorded their third home win of the Betfred Super League season after convincingly seeing off rock-bottom Catalans Dragons.
The Red Devils have lost all four of their matches on the road this year, but tries from Jake Bibby, Niall Evalds, Greg Johnson, Josh Jones and Kris Welham helped them to a 32-16 victory over the Dragons.
Robert Lui added 12 points with the boot to condemn the Perpignan-based club, whose points came from Fouad Yaha's two tries, Greg Bird's late touchdown and two conversions from Tony Gigot, to defeat.
Catalans were chasing only their second win of the season and their first on English soil since last September and coach Steve McNamara brought winger Jodie Broughton and hooker Michael McIlorum in to the starting line-up.
Welham returned at centre for Salford in place of Derrell Olpherts, while Josh Wood came into the scrum-half position, replacing Jack Littlejohn.
And it was the home side who made a bright start, which was rewarded in the eighth minute when a flowing move from left to right saw Bibby dot down in the corner from the pass of Evalds, who turned try-scorer on the restart.
Lui broke in midfield before drawing Lewis Tierney and offloading to the supporting Evalds, who touched down under the posts.
Trailing 12-0, the visitors did start to show some creative spark midway through the first-half and their cause was aided in the 20th minute when Weller Hauraki was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on Samisoni Langi.
Catalans took advantage of the extra man in the 26th minute, Gigot catching a low pass before his neat chip over Johnson led to Yaha touching down in the right corner.
Gigot missed the conversion to leave the score at 12-4 and that was how it remained until the interval.
Following a bad-tempered opening to the second-half, Salford extended their lead in the 51st minute when Lui's pass found Johnson to race over unopposed on the left edge.
With Salford camped on the Catalans' line, it needed something special to haul the visitors back into the game and it came on the hour mark when Yaha intercepted Wood's pass and sprinted 95 metres to score under the posts. Gigot's conversion narrowed the deficit to eight points.
Lui added a penalty with 13 minutes remaining to increase the Salford lead to 20-10.
Salford then strengthened their position from the restart as smart interplay around the ruck from Lui, Logan Tomkins and Evalds saw Mark Flanagan break away and he offloaded to the supporting Jones to touch down between the posts.
Welham added Salford's fifth try of the afternoon - with Lui maintaining his 100 per cent record from the boot - after dummying his way over the line.
Bird touched down from short range in the last minute of the game before Gigot added the conversion from the left of the posts but it proved scant consolation for Catalans.