Tom Davies reminded everyone there’s more than one Tom doing the business for leaders Catalans.
The ex-Wigan winger crossed twice against gutsy Hull as Steve McNamara’s side delivered a seventh successive Super League win. Fellow wideman Tom Johnstone has been earning rave reviews since his move from Wakefield this season. He got things up and running, moving back to Super League’s top tryscorer with his 21st of the campaign after latching onto Sam Tomkins’ grubber.
Davies - who earned a solitary England cap in 2021 - only has eight in comparison but this brace marked his fourth in his last three games. And Catalans badly needed his 63rd minute second try to finally see off spirited hosts who had threatened to cause a shock just as they did in their last outing against champions St Helens. After seeing his side open up a four-point lead at the top, McNamara said: “The two Toms are an incredible partnership - they are a pair - and Tom Johnstone’s got all the headlines of late with his try-scoring feats.
“But Tom Davies has got a couple today and his work out of backfield was really important. He fought for a couple of tries off kicks and scraps and it was important for us today to get a valuable win. We’re in a decent position but it’s only July, there’s ten games to go and this competition is tough.
"We were in control at 22-6 but let Hull back in and it shows what can happen. Suddenly it's game on again. We put a lot of pressure on them at the start of the second half but they held us up over the line and made it a really close game. It was a good test for us. The boys are glad they’ve won. But they’re also disappointed in there - which I suppose is a good thing for us."
Hull were behind just 22-18 at the break after two late tries had seen them give themselves a chance. But they couldn’t kick-on and spent most of the second period manfully defending as Catalans launched attack after attack. They scrambled brilliantly and three times held up opponents - Julian Bousquet, Michael McIlorum and ex-Hull second-row Manu Mau - over their own goalline before Davies secured Tyrone May’s kick to finally break them.
Ninth-placed Hull, who saw Adam Swift come off with a back injury on his 200th career appearance, twice produced 40/20 kicks, from Danny Houghton and Jake Clifford, but crucially neither resulted in points. Catalans looked in total control when back-to-back tries from Arthur Romano and Bousquet left them 22-6 ahead in the 33rd minute. But Cam Scott’s brilliant- break led to Darnell McIntosh’s spectacular one-handed finish.
And then ex-England captain Tomkins bizarrely threw a pass on his own 20m - just as the interval hooter was sounding - for Swift to intercept and score. But Hull, who had seen Chris Satate rumble over, had also gifted Davies his opener after Joe Lovodua dropped a pass and Catalans' Arthur Morgue finished with four goals. Boss Tony Smith admitted: “We conceded a couple of soft tries in the first half. We just haven’t been conceding those lately and we weren’t quite on it.
“We found some energy on our try-line in the second half and there was more desperation. But that took it out of us. Catalans are ranked number one and they deserved the win. But on another week I’d like to think we could turn them over.”
