Rhys Hanbury’s try eight minutes from time capped a fantastic comeback for Widnes as the Vikings hit back from a 14-0 deficit to snatch a 14-14 against Catalans Dragons in terrible conditions in Perpignan.
The Dragons looked on course to maintain their 100 per cent record in this season’s Betfred Super League when converted tries from Brayden Wiliame and Richie Myler, plus a penalty from Luke Walsh, put them out of sight in the first half hour.
Williame opened the scoring after six minutes after good work by Ben Garcia and Myler, who grabbed the game’s second try by touching down from his own kick forwards. Walsh added the extras to both tries and split the posts again after a Widnes infraction.
But the Vikings got themselves on the scoreboard just before the break as Patrick Ah Van charged over to score down the left, with Hanbury converting.
The visitors struck again eight minutes after the interval when Chris Bridge’s grubber kick to the in-goal area was fumbled by Thomas Bosc, allowing Tom Olbison to narrow the deficit to four points after Hanbury missed the conversion.
The momentum was in the visitors’ favour and another grubber saw them go over for their third try, with Hanbury pouncing to ground the ball. Hanbury missed the conversion attempt and the spoils were shared.
Vikings coach Denis Betts was delighted with the point on a tough evening. He said: “We’ve never taken any points away from here in the seven years that we’ve been coming, so our target was to take some points away from here today, and we’ve done that,” he said.
“It’s hard to feel aggrieved at the players when they walk into the changing rooms at the end of the game and you can’t tell who is who because they are that covered in mud.”
Laurent Frayssinous added: “In the second half, both offensively and defensively, we weren’t good enough. We didn’t play like we did in the first thirty-five minutes and that is disappointing.
“Credit to Widnes, they put themselves in a position where they were able to win the game and that is a credit to them, but we should never have been in a position to not win that game.”