Warrington 54 Catalans Dragons 12: Wolves return to defend trophy

The Wolves will meet reigning Super League champions Leeds at Wembley in a repeat of the 1936 final after reaching their destination in sharp contrast to the Rhinos' nailbiting win over St Helens 24 hours earlier.

Former New Zealand international Louis Anderson led the scoring spree with a hat-trick of tries – despite scoring just two in 25 appearances before yesterday — and Ben Westwood kicked seven out of seven conversions.

The Catalans were without tough-tackling forward Dallas Johnson, who stayed behind in France to be with his pregnant wife, but it is difficult to imagine the one-time State of Origin player would have been able to help bridge the obvious gulf between the two teams.

The Dragons can now concentrate on avoiding a second wooden spoon in five years of Super League while Warrington know they will face a far sterner test against the Rhinos, to whom they have already lost to twice this season.

Catalans' hopes of emulating their 37-24 win over Wigan in the 2007 semi-finals had been boosted by back-to-back League wins, including a 29-28 success over yesterday's opponents only a fortnight ago, but they met a Warrington side in blistering form.

Half-backs Lee Briers and Michael Monaghan, who were pivotal in the club's first Cup final triumph for 37 years, were again a class apart as they teased and tormented the Dragons' shabby defence.

Full-back Clint Greenshields, who has spent most of the season on the injured list, demonstrated his uncanny ability to poach tries for the Dragons but they came at the end of each half when it mattered little.

It was all very predictable as the holders made a dream start with two tries in the first 11 minutes.

Loose forward Ben Harrison charged onto man-of-the-match Monaghan's pass at pace and took four defenders over the line with him for the game's first try with just five minutes on the clock.

Centre Ryan Atkins then leapt high to gather Briers's kick and passed, in rugby union line-out fashion, to the unmarked Louis Anderson for his first try.

Westwood converted both tries to make it 12-0 before the Catalans enjoyed a comparative purple patch without being able to make much effective use of their surfeit of possession.

A break out of his own half by Atkins set up the position for Briers to get centre Matt King dummying his way over for the Wolves' third try, while Chris Hicks broke free on the right and Monaghan, spotting the Catalans defence exposed on the left, put in a kick for Chris Riley to touch down for the next score.

Westwood maintained his accuracy to put the Wolves 30-0 up before the French side created their first tryscoring chance three minutes before half-time.

Winger Chris Walker was obstructed by Briers as he attempted to regather Thomas Bosc's kick to the corner and, although video referee Ian Smith decided against a penalty try, the Catalans made the pressure tell, with Greenshields forcing his way over from dummy half.

Any hope of a fightback was extinguished five minutes after the restart when Briers took advantage of a remarkable pass around his back by David Solomona to touch down for a sixth try.

There was no let up as Anderson grabbed two further tries, one of them after a 60-metre sprint, and half-back Richie Myler got in on the act after coming on as a substitute.

A break from Hicks created the ninth try for hooker Jon Clarke to leave the Catalans totally shattered, although they did manage a consolation try through Greenshields, with Bosc adding a second goal.

Warrington: Mathers, Hicks, King, Atkins, Riley, Briers, Monaghan, Morley, Clarke, Carvell, L. Anderson, Westwood, Harrison. Substitutes: Myler, Wood, Solomona, V. Anderson.

Catalans Dragons: Greenshields, Bell, Raguin, Carlaw, Walker, Bosc, Sherwin, Casty, McGuire, Fakir, Elima, Mounis, Sa. Substitutes: Ferriol, Guisset, Gossard, Simon.

Referee: R Silverwood (Dewsbury).