Saturday 9th February 2013, 18:00 - Round:2

Catalan Dragons brushed aside the challenge of Salford City Reds despite losing up-and-coming prop Julien Bousquet in the third minute to a red card.

The Reds trailed 16-6 at the break, but had no reply to their hosts' power after the turnaround despite holding a numerical advantage.

Vincent Duport (2), Remi Casty, Steve Menzies, Ian Henderson, Olivier Elima and Daryl Millard crossed for the Dragons, with Niall Evalds managing the visitors' only try.

It was an impressive performance by the Dragons, who move top of the table after this second win.

However, things did not look good when they lost Bousquet in the third minute for a late and high hit on Theo Fages, which saw the French youngster carried off on a stretcher.

Brent Webb shone and orchestrated the Dragons thereafter - and their first try came in the 11th minute when Duport broke down the left-hand touchline after a long pass from Webb and set up the field position for Casty to charge over from 15 metres out.

From the restart, a Leon Pryce knock-on allowed Salford field position and, with Catalan short of numbers, the visitors only had to catch and pass to score, but Andrew Dixon knocked on with the line open.

Midway through the half, Henderson won a penalty from acting half with Salford offside and Webb took on the line before offloading to Zeb Taia, who caught and passed in the same movement for the supporting Menzies to go over under the posts.

Just five minutes later, a deft Menzies pass out the back to Damien Blanch saw the Irish international go over, but he was held up and pushed over the dead-ball line by the Salford defence.

Salford then went the length of the field and scored their first try of the campaign through Evalds in the right corner when Pryce had allowed Ryan McGoldrick to run around him.

In the 33rd minute, Henderson thought he was over after Pryce had the ball knocked from his grasp by a Salford hand; he collected the ball and scooted over, but the referee had a call from the touch judge to rule that Pryce had knocked on.

Five minutes later, Thomas Bosc and Pryce combined to set up Duport to go over in the left corner and, although the former missed the kick at goal, his team were 16-6 ahead.

There was a scare when Webb threw a forward pass to Millard from the restart, allowing Salford one last attack at the Dragons' line. However, the hosts held firm to maintain a 10-point lead at the turnaround.

After the break, Catalan let loose, with Henderson sneaking over and captain Elima scoring on his return to the Dragons. Bosc converted both to extend the lead to 28-6.

Webb then put his stamp firmly on the game in the last quarter, first setting up the field position and then putting in the final pass to Duport, who scored his second try of the night, which Bosc converted.

Before Salford had time to regroup, Webb spotted a short-side play and sent second row Louis Anderson away to race clear and put Millard in from 50 metres out. Bosc completed the scoring with his sixth goal from seven attempts.