FIRED-UP DRAGONS REACH FINAL FOUR
Catalans Dragons insist they are worthy of a place in the last four of the Carnegie Challenge Cup and have their sights set on an historic trip to
Wembley.
The Perpignan club matched the efforts of French rivals Toulouse two years ago by beating 2005 winners Hull 26-23 to reach the semi-finals for the first time and will join former cup winners St Helens, Wigan and Bradford in Wednesday's draw.
The Catalans had home advantage against part-timers Featherstone in their opening match of this year's tournament but then had to overcome a tricky tie at Whitehaven and on Sunday they succeeded where St Helens and Leeds have both failed this year by winning at the KC Stadium.
The Dragons will be forced to return to England for their semi-final but coach Mick Potter says his side will have nothing to fear in the semi-finals.
"I hope we won't be there to make up the numbers," he said.
"It's only 80 minutes of football. If you can get away to a good start and frustrate the other side, you never know.
"It's supposed to be a neutral venue and we're pretty used to the travel. It's not a hardship for us and we're happy to travel if that's what the RFL decide."
Even without eight players through injury, including influential stand-off Casey Maguire, the Catalans were the quickest out of the blocks and led 16-8 at the interval thanks to a scintillating first-half showing.
Adam Mogg led the way with two tries, with co-centre John Wilson adding another, while full-back Shaun Briscoe posted Hull's solitary effort.
Hull managed to pull in front after an hour thanks to Paul King's try and two goals by Danny Tickle, only for Wayne Godwin to be sin-binned with 10 minutes remaining and there the contest ended.
Hull coach Peter Sharp had no complaints with the result but has backed his side to bounce back after they were booed off the field.
"It's sad that [the crowd] booed the players," he said.
"They pay their money and they're entitled to their opinion.
"They're probably as frustrated as the rest of us. The players are frustrated too. You can be as cranky as you like and I'm cranky, but they're trying.
"We just need to roll our sleeves up and work as hard as we can."
Bradford, the 2003 winners who had failed to get past the second hurdle in each of their three previous campaigns, romped past last year's runners-up Huddersfield to book their place in the last four.
Former Huddersfield winger Marcus St Hilaire scored the 100th try of his career, which included an appearance for Leeds in the last Wembley final in 1999, and substitute Tame Tupou touched down twice on his debut as the Bulls cut loose to win 52-20 at Odsal.
The Giants had not lost by more than eight points in any of their previous 18 league and cup matches this year but they had no answer to the devastating running of Bulls second-row pair David Solomona and Glenn Morrison or the brilliant tactical kicking of man of the match Paul Deacon.
Huddersfield had centre Jamahl Lolesi sin-binned in the first half for a high and late tackle on Deacon and trailed 46-4 until three tries in a five-minute spell late in the game enabled them to add a touch of respectability to the scoreboard.
"I thought Bradford were tremendous and would have beaten any side in Super League," said Giants coach Jon Sharp.
