Betfred Super League

Catalans Dragons (0) 6

Try: Tison Goal: Sexton

Leeds Rhinos (16) 28

Tries: Newman, Croft 3, Miller Goals: Connor 4

Brodie Croft scored a hat-trick to help Super League pacesetters Leeds Rhinos restore their four-point lead at the summit with victory against a stubborn Catalans Dragons side in Perpignan.

Croft grabbed the first of his treble of tries in between efforts from Harry Newman and Lachlan Miller, which put Leeds 16-0 up at half-time.

The half-back went on to grab two more tries in 11 second-half minutes to ensure an ultimately comfortable victory in the south of France.

Ugo Tison did well to fend off one tackler and hold off two more defenders as he crashed over in the final seconds of the game to ensure Catalans avoided being held pointless at home.

Croft’s try-scoring exploits at the Stade Gilbert Brutus, which took his try-scoring tally for 20 for the season, came on a night when there was huge expectation on the free-scoring Maika Sivo, who had a Super League record in his sights.

A try against Dragons would have seen the Fijian equal the Super League record for tries scored in consecutive games, but he was starved of chances and had his scoring spree stopped at 10 matches.

Edenn Rogers-Smith was brought in for his debut as Catalans head coach John Cartwright made four changes to the Dragons side that started in the heavy 60-18 defeat by French rivals Toulouse last week.

While Catalans were much improved for the visit of the league-leading Rhinos, a third-straight defeat leaves them eighth in the table, six points adrift of the top six, and at risk of losing touch with the play-off places.

Newman was perfectly positioned to give Leeds the ideal start, getting on the end of a probing Jake Connor grubber kick, which first bounced wickedly and sailed over the head of team-mate James McDonnell, to cross over for Leeds’ first points at Stade Gilbert Brutus in almost four years – having failed to score in three previous defeats in the south of France.

Catalans squandered a huge chance to hit back, with Toby Sexton making a mess of an attempted offload to find Leo Darrelatour a metre from the line, before Croft landed a sucker punch by collecting a loose ball and racing 70 metres to add to Leeds advantage.

And when Jarrod O’Connor tore a hole through Catalans’ defensive line to put Miller in under the posts in the 37th minute, the competition pacesetters looked destined to make it 12 wins in 13 games dating back to late March.

After a fiery start to the second half, in which melees flared up repeatedly, Croft linked up with Miller and darted through the Dragons defence to put the result beyond doubt.

Croft was smiling broadly when he again zipped through the Dragons resistance, and while there was a late push to get Sivo over for a record-equalling score, they could not carve out a chance for the try-scoring sensation, who has gone over 28 times this season after missing the entire 2025 campaign with a knee injury.

And after a number of near misses at the other end, it was by sheer determination that Tison grabbed a late consolation try for the hosts.

Catalans Dragons: Staines, Cotric, Laguerre, Faataape, Darrelatour, Sexton, Dodd, Allen, Leeming, Maria, Rogers-Smith, Lipowicz, Bousquet.

Interchanges: Condon, Navarrete, Wilson, Tison, Martin.

Leeds Rhinos: Miller, Sivo, Handley, Newman, Lumb, Croft, Connor, Oledzki, Levi, Jenkins, Hankinson, McDonnell, Watkins.

Interchanges: Holroyd, O’Connor, C. Smith, Cassell, Nicholson-Watton.

Referee: Liam Moore.