Castleford's Danny Richardson slotted the match-winning drop goal - at the FOURTH attempt of asking.
The scrum-half, 25, saw two shots head wide in normal time of a Super League epic at Wheldon Road. And his next effort was brilliantly charged down by Sam Tomkins in golden-point extra-time. But Cas got the ball back and Richardson composed himself to guide it over and complete a 17-16 triumph.
It was only his third game of the season after an injury-ravaged time. Boss Lee Radford - who’s not ruled out giving Richardson a new deal for 2023 - said: “I’m really pleased for Danny. He’s backed up a good performance in the win in Toulouse with a very good one here.
“For him to execute that under the spotlight was very pleasing. Our set-up was really poor but we got there in the end. There was some really dumb stuff but some real special efforts as well. I’m just pleased we came out on the other side. We really stuck in.”
But last season’s League Leaders Catalans blew chances galore to win it. Leading 16-10 after Michael McIlorum, Sam Tomkins and Arthur Romano tries, they should have put the game to bed in the 68th minute. Tomkins grubbered through but the England captain - who missed an earlier simple conversion attempt - bounced the ball trying to score.
Moments later, Cas levelled at the other end as Paul McShane smuggled Derrell Olpherts over on the last tackle. Richardson held his nerve to slot the touchline conversion. Cas’ other tries came from Cheyse Blair and Ryan Hampshire, the full-back who later limped off with a knee injury.
Catalans’ Joe Chan broke through late on only to butcher a dream chance by ignoring a two-man overlap. And Josh Drinkwater and Tomkins both missed drop-goal attempts in the first period of extra-time before Richardson's 88th minute winner. Fuming Catalans boss Steve McNamara bemoaned: “We should have finished the game easily in normal time.
“We had so many opportunities to do that and then more in extra-time. We’re hugely disappointed. We’ve been really good in those areas before. But for whatever reason we never got it done today. We didn’t find touch with a penalty, there were knock-ons, not touching down balls, going for drop-goals when it’s clearly not on and we had a plan not to do that.
“We had a break and he (Chan) dummied and went himself. It just went from one to the other. Credit to Cas but we missed a huge opportunity today.”
