DRAGONS TURN ON BURNERS

Catalans 18

20 St Helens

By STEVEN BRADY

CATALANS DRAGONS had champions St Helens in a sweat with a hard-fought comeback victory in a Perpignan heatwave.

Les Dracs roared back from an early Saints onslaught.

The French side were 8-0 behind in the opening stages, but Josh Drinkwater inspired a revival that inflicted only a third defeat of the regular season on table-topping Saints.

Sione Mata’utia celebrated his return for the visitors with a try in the seventh minute and Jonny Lomax doubled their advantage eight minutues later.

But Saints suffered when Tommy Makinson had to leave the field injured 15-minutes from half-time and the Dragons went into the break 10-8 ahead thanks to tries from Matthieu Laguerre and Drinkwater, and Sam Tomkins’ conversion.

Ben Davies and Jack Welsby crossed for Saints but tries from Samisoni Langi (left) and Dean Whare sealed it for the Dragons.