Rugby's coming home...

And so the 2018 season ends this weekend with the second visit of Huddersfield to the Stade Gilbert Brutus.

Earlier in the season it mattered. The Giants and Dracs were at the bottom of the league and desperate for a super run to save their season. 

Catalans won easily on the night, and both clubs did embark on a baffling series of results which culminated in them both making the super 8s. 

Even funnier was that this was at the expense of Leeds. 

This match sees nothing to play for (to be fair we've been in that position for weeks). 

So for one last time in the Super League season we will say Bon Chance to the Dracs. 

By Monday we will be looking forward to 2019...

Our Player of the Year poll is live...

Whilst the clubs official awards are interesting and exciting, our eagerly awaited poll is now live via our forum.

Please click here and vote using your logged in account name.

The list is filtered down to those still with the club or who have made a decent number of appearances for the club during 2018.

Dragons announce end of season awards...

Click here

UPDATED (Apologies for G-Translate!)

Club Man:  Greg Bird

Best tackle:  Jason Baitieri

Best Test Marker:  Fouad Yaha

Essay of the Year:  Lewis Tierney

Penyas players France Bleu Roussillon:  Ben Garcia

Player of the Year The Independent  : Tony Gigot

Rookie of the year:  Mickael Goudemand 

Player of the Year & Player of the Year:  Micky McIlorum

Low key it might have been, but a wins a win

I must admit to only having watched the highlights of this one rather than sitting through the full game.

It was enough however to see that this was as low key occasion as would have been expected. For the fans that did gather in rainy Humberside the score line was a nice swingometer between the two clubs. The lack of quality and interest of both sides didn’t detract from the fact that Catalans were looking for that rarest of things, a win on the road.

Hull were looking to avoid some of the hammerings of recent weeks. So both teams will have gone away with both objectives achieved and pride intact.

Regular on our forum “Catalanglais” was at the game and filed this report along with player ratings.

“We were hopeless at the start and would have conceded several tries to anyone else. But we scored twice and they did not get ahead until the the last 10 minutes .We then scored 2 excellent tries. 

Marks out of 10
Gigot 4 -1 good try ,but poor in defence 
Tierney 2 -clearly badly injured in the warm up and dropped many high balls 
Mead 7 
Wiliame 8 
Thornley 9 -possibly his best ever game for us 
Drinkwater 5 
Albert 5 
Moa 7 
Mcillorum 6 
Maria 7 
Juliene 7 
Bird 8 
Baitieri 6 

Bench Edwards 8 Goudamond 7 Belmas 6 Dacosta 7”

Vote for Catalans try of the season 2018

Click here to vote from the shortlist.

VOTEZ POUR L'ESSAI DE L'ANNÉE 2018

 Lewis Tierney - Février 2018
 Fouad Yaha - Mars 2018
 Benjamin Jullien - Avril 2018
 Benjamin Jullien - Mai 2018
 Lewis Tierney - Juin 2018
 Brayden Wiliame - Juillet 2018
 Lewis Tierney - Août 2018
 Iain Thornley - Septembre 2018

Can Hull away end the boredom?

Two sides who are bang out of form for different reasons.

Dracs are supposedly still celebrating their first trophy and whatever has happened outside of that glorious day at Wembley this season will be seen a success, and rightly so.

Hull have disintegrated as a result of injury and losing big matches such as the Challenge Cup quarter final.

In recent weeks both teams have been accused of clocking off for the winter. Hull especially having conceded over 100 points in two games including over 70 at Wakey and 80 at Wire. However I watched them against Castleford the other night and I felt there were positive signs and despite being well down on the scoreboard at half time they actually finished strongly.

Look, let's not beat about the bush here. If Hull could have hand picked a team to play this week to give them a chance of ending their horrific run it would have been us.

We haven't reached the heights of the Macron or Wembley since those days and my feeling is that we wont in this one either.

I try not to align my thoughts with Garry Schofield too often (no offence Garry!) but he had the Super 8's bob on with his comment on Forty 20 Live this week.

These games are a colossal waste of time and contain no drama, no dependencies on the outcome and will just be played out by teams waiting for a holiday.

I can't remember where in the show his rant came (as there are always plenty !!) but here is the show below...

I hope Catalans prove me wrong a get a win on the board before the end of the 2018 Super League season, but my breath is not held...

...as I might die. 

Dragons release retro looking Wembley shirt

Click here to order from the club shop. Available in red and white.

Poll made irrelevant !

Josh Drinkwater and Catalans President Bernard Gausch have both confirmed that the talented back has closed off negotiations with the club.

Sad to see him go and possibly flourish elsewhere as he will always be a part of the clubs history.

Vote in our Josh Drinkwater poll on RLFans.com

Click here to cast your vote.

Dragons beaten at Wakefield... but was this to be expected?

I suppose we did ask for a bit of fight…

However the result was as expected and if you can get out old website to load (and it will intermittently) you will see the sort of words and phrases we spoke earlier in the season applying today.

Dragons have clocked off haven’t they?

And I suppose back at the start of the year when we talked about “enough being enough” and the effort being described as “disgraceful” we’d have taken an 8th place finish in the Super League.
That sense of perspective is key at this stage. Back at Easter I wasn’t interested in a Challenge Cup win, I just wanted to avoid the Million Pound Game again.

So I suppose the players can be forgiven for a post Wembley dip.

I do still want to reiterate I said before this match, if we want to win titles we have to avoid post big game reductions in performance. Wigan get up for big game after big game. St Helens can get up for big game after big game, and until Catalans can match those performance levels they won’t be considered favourites over a long season.

Of course since they started hitting form and getting results the Dragons side has been on a roll. So I do have to bear that in mind, but I remain to be convinced we’ll win the Super League any time soon.

Scott Dureau - Hall of Fame Entry

Apr. 10, 2018

Season	Appearance	Tries	Goals	F/G	Points
2011 Catalan Dragons	27	12	97	5	247
2012 Catalan Dragons	32	12	131	3	313
2013 Catalan Dragons	10	3	13	1	39
2014 Catalan Dragons	1	0	1	0	2
2015 Catalan Dragons	27	3	98	2	210
Total	97	30	340	11	811

What a player and legend Scott Dureau has been for the Catalans Dragons club.

He was that rarest of overseas signings in so far as being a player who slotted in straight away taking on the creative role in the halves along with goal kicking… but more of that anon.

“Biscuit” was backed up by a wonderful and supportive family unit and bought into the Dragons ethos. I absolutely loved the guy and aside from that moment I have another that I want to share.
After his terrible eye tumour he battled back to be in the Dragons line up before a comeback try against London at Magic Weekend. It was from close range and a dab down so not one that took much scoring, however it was a key moment in his rehabilitation and one that brought a massive smile to this correspondents face.

His presence behind such legendary Dragons forwards as Ferriol and Elima saw him gain time and space to make a pass or a kick usually with Damian Blanch on the end getting four points.

There is one moment which of course will remain top of mind for any Dragons fan. That moment at Langtree Park when Daryl Millard finished off that ad hoc play on the 5^th tackle and beyond the full time hooter.

The try was quite something, the kick even more so as plenty of time elapsed between the pandemonium of the touch down and Dureau lining up the kick.

His deep breaths and rolling of the shoulders as he lined it up had me quaking in my seat.
But he nailed it, of course he nailed it.

Despite not being the same player after his eye surgery, and who would be?, his final stats saw him score north of 800 points for the club and score tries at a rate of almost one in every three matches.
Adding this guy to the hall of fame is a total no brainer. A legend and someone who was part of the most flamboyant and exciting Dragons sides in their history.

Damian Blanch - Hall of Fame Entry

Damien Blanch is the latest former Dragon to be added to the Sang et Or Hall of Fame.
Blanch was not considered for inclusion until he retired from playing, something he confirmed on social media recently after leaving Thirroul Butchers.

The winger arrived at Gilbert Brutus from Wakefield in the winter of 2010 and set about replacing look a like Steve Bell in the Dracs fans affections.

His inclusion in the hall of fame is based on some amazing aerial tries and the sheer consistency of his stats.

In 75 appearance for Catalan Dragons he scored 46 tries. To put that into context he crossed the whitewash on average 0.6 times per game.

Many of those scores came from about a metre in the air and tight int the corner. He always seemed to score dramatic scores against Hull KR for some reason and will be forever revered as being part of the build up to that Daryl Millard try and Langtree Park.

Well done Damien, a worthy inclusion, you are still missed.

Is it important we win at Wakefield?

For me it is.

I want us to win every game and if the coaches desire to build a Super League winning side is ever to be fulfilled then we have to get up for games after big games… if that makes sense.

You don’t just win a couple of the big matches (I.e Saints semi and Wire final) and then just clock off. Big players want that intensity week in week out and can react to it and elevate their performance.
We need to add that to our game if we are ever going to be more than a cup side and Super 8’s cannon fodder.

Since the cup final we have been playing ok but not winning matches. The St Helens game was close but I think Steve McNamara will have targeted Wakey away as one to get us back to winning ways.
Getting over the line and getting points on the league ladder (regardless of whether you can finish no higher or lower in the season) is a massively positive habit to have. I hope they approach this like the cup final and give a display that gets the result.

So I will be looking for a number of things this week. I will be looking for a return to strong set completion (we have been dropping the ball too often since the hour mark in the cup final), positive aggressive defending (without giving away penalties), and innovative plays to get us in for some points.

Challenge Cup Final Highlights

Yaha gone.

Winger Fouad Yaha has left the club with immediate effect.

In the worst kept secret in sport, the Frenchman is changing codes and joining Agen rufc.

We call this doing a Pelo in homage to the boy Dimitri. Who was bad at union.

All the best Yaha !

Our appearance on the Super League Pod Show - post challenge cup final.

Click here to get to the podcast via Spreaker.

Many thanks to the show for having us on.

Photos from Castleford away

Welcome to the website!

We hope you have stuck with us since April when our Freeteams site started to fall over.

In fact we haven't been able to update it since Josh Drinkwater signed for the club. Has much happened since then?

😉

It's been a journey and we have been pretty annoyed not to be able to share it with you, but we are back now and will be posting a bit more often to try and get back on track.

The format of the site is changing however. We aren't going to put the same level of emphasis on match information as the club website does such a brilliant job of that.

No, this site is now about stories and insight and we look forward to sharing that with you.

Old favourites like the "UK Dragons" branded online store, "Players List" and "Hall of Fame" have come with us (Phew) and we'd like to thank John Dobson for keeping them running on the RLFans forum we all populate and are keen to promote.

Please stick with and be patient as we get up and running.