Sam Tomkins leads Catalans Dragons to thumping win over Warrington

Catalans Dragons inflicted Warrington’s seventh defeat of the season in with a second-half peppering in Perpignan.

Sam Tomkins returned early from his broken leg to torment the Wolves with a dynamic display from full-back, including eight crucial goal-kicks which were decisive in what had been an edgy contest until three very late tries.

Warrington had nerves of steel early in this game as they held the Dragons 6-6 at half-time but five second-half tries from Mitch Pearce, Julian Bousquet, Gil Dudson, Fouad Yaha and Arthur Mourgue saw the Dragons worthy winners.

Tomkins was first to trouble the scoreboard with a ninth-minute penalty goal after Warrington second-rower Oliver Holmes was punished for a high tackle on Mourgue.

But the Wolves scrum-half George Williams turned the tide with two breaks which led to winger Connor Wrench scoring the first try of the game in the right corner, Peter Mata’utia on target from the touchline with the conversion to make it 6-2.

Young French centre Matthieu Laguerre soon crossed the line for Catalans but referee Liam Moore ruled he had not grounded the ball properly. However, there was nothing wrong with Tom Davies’ 23rd-minute touchdown after he collected a clever slip-pass from the tackle by his centre Tyrone May to level the scores.

It was the introduction of giant prop Sam Kasiano from the bench which really fired up the Dragons as he and fellow front-row replacement Dudson had Warrington on the rack with a series of powerful and punishing runs.

But Catalans could not turn pressure into points and the two teams remained level at 6-6 at half-time.

The Dragons came out firing after the break with an early penalty from Tomkins but Warrington hit back with a 70-metre break by Wrench,