Castleford Tigers 34 Catalans Dragons 18: Play-offs target for Castleford as Chase edges out Dragons

The West Yorkshire club have had it tough recently with Matterson coming under fire following some poor results and their shock Carnegie Challenge Cup exit at the hands of Barrow.

But, inspired by Kiwi stand-off Rangi Chase, they backed up last week's win over Salford with another against bottom-of-table Catalans yesterday, ending their four-year wait for a Magic Weekend triumph in the process.

Castleford saw a 22-10 lead almost evaporate in the second half as their French opponents battled back to leave them edgy.

But the impressive Brent Sherwin recorded his second try late on, as did Ryan McGoldrick, to leave Matterson satisfied and his team comparatively well-placed in eleventh place.

"I'm really pleased," he said.

"It takes a fair bit out of you this weekend (in Edinburgh) but we got the job done and have got a couple in a row now. We can build some confidence on that.

"All of a sudden we're two points out of the top eight. We get another win and you never know. Hopefully we can have a good run in to the end of the season."

Matterson added: "We did make hard work of it. We looked really good at the start and were playing confidently. Then we made a couple of errors and they pounced on them.

"In the second half we looked dead in the water at a couple of stages but found the energy to get back."

Castleford dominated the opening quarter with Catalans – who have now lost five successive games – struggling to get out of their own half.

Mitchell Sargent thought he had muscled his way over after just six minutes but the Tigers prop was just short and fumbled while stretching out.

But Chase, at his effervescent best early on, quickly fashioned tries for both Michael Wainwright and McGoldrick.

First, the lively stand-off shrugged off Jean-Phillipe Baile and Steven Bell before flicking out a pass to Wainwright who just sneaked in at the corner on nine minutes. And then Chase stabbed through a kick which McGoldrick raced on to as the Catalans defence disappeared around the posts just six minutes later.

Joe Westerman converted the second and Matterson admitted: "Rangi is doing a job for us both at stand-off and at hooker where I put him for a while.

"He's really hard to handle – you can have so many game plans to try and handle him but he's a real jack-in-the-box.

"He's playing with a lot of confidence at the moment."

However, after Chase had inflicted so much damage, the French side finally realised they were here to play and woke from their slumber.

Tigers youngster Jordan Thompson's sloppy error at the play-the-ball gifted Catalans possession and from the resulting scrum, full-back Dimitri Pelo hit Casey McGuire's pass and splendidly deceived the Castleford defence to arc away and put Frederic Vaccari in at the corner.

When Kirk Dixon dithered waiting for a Catalans kick to go dead, the winger saw the ball bounce off him to concede a drop out and Tigers were punished again. A well-timed Thomas Bosc pass allowed France captain Olivier Elima to surge through untouched against his former club, the score on the half-hour leaving Gregory Mounis a simple conversion to level at 10-10.

A mixture of some genuine class and sheer good fortune allowed Castleford to go into the break ahead though. Brent Sherwin's shallow clever chip to the right flank was collected by Dixon who escaped Vaccari tight to the touchline before aiming a second kick back infield.

Bell looked like he would have it covered racing in from the other wing but a wicked bounce left him stranded and former Canterbury scrum-half Sherwin strolled in for Westerman to convert.

Another Chase kick caused confusion in the Catalans ranks to allow Castleford to extend their lead five minutes after the re-start.

Ex-Bradford centre James Evans was the man to profit as the ball ricocheted off Pelo and Vaccari. Westerman slotted his third conversion, but Kevin Walters – who only arrived back from Australia a day earlier following a family bereavement – watched his gritty side refused to yield.

Wainwright produced a stunning tackle to hold McGuire up over the line and, with the robust Elima and Baile making inroads down the middle, Catalans sensed their nervous opponents could easily fold.

Indeed, soon after, Mounis bumped off Chase to get over and when Baile burrowed through lightweight tackles from Jordan Thompson and Westerman, Catalans had narrowed the deficit to just four points.

However, they collapsed in the closing stages. Westerman eased the tension with a 74th minute penalty before Sherwin slid in a kick for McGoldrick to get his second with three minutes left.

Sherwin then rubbed salt into the would by intercepting McGuire's wild pass at the end.

Castleford: McGoldrick; Wainwright, Evans, Thompson, Dixon; Chase, Sherwin; Sargent, Hudson, Jackson, Huby, Jones, Westerman. Substitutes: Snitch, Higgins, Holmes, Tuson.

Catalans: Pelo; Bell, Raguin, Sa, Vaccari; Bosc, McGuire; Carlaw, Baile, Guisset, Elima, Mounis, Johnson. Substitutes: Touxagas, Bentley, Martins, Casty.

Referee: I Smith (Oldham).