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Catalans and St Helens clash in Perpigan live on Sky Sports on Saturday
We look at what is being said and team news ahead of Saturday’s three Betfred Super League matches, including the showdown between Catalans Dragons and St Helens, live on Sky Sports…
Catalans Dragons vs St Helens (5pm UK time, live on Sky Sports)
It was a typically cold February evening when St Helens and Catalans kicked off the 2022 Super League season at Totally Wicked Stadium, but on the field there were times when it reached boiling point with one or two confrontations as the hosts won 28-8.
Keeping a cool head will therefore be paramount as last year’s Grand Finalists meet again in the south of France on Saturday evening live on Sky Sports – and that is before taking into account that the temperature in Perpignan is forecast to be just under 30 degrees celsius come kick-off.
Catalans Dragons vs St Helens
July 2, 2022, 4:55pm
Live on 
Saints head coach Kristian Woolf – a man used to the heat from his days growing up in rural Queensland – is confident the reigning champions will be able to handle the conditions though, citing how they coped well with extremes in last year’s Betfred Challenge Cup final win over Castleford Tigers.
“We’ll come up with a bit of a plan which takes that into consideration in terms of how we play, but each year you come across this at this time of year,” Woolf, whose side also beat Catalans 36-20 away in the Cup quarter-finals in April, said.
“I remember the Challenge Cup final last year and, coming from Australia, I didn’t think it got that hot over here. I think that’s the hottest I’ve ever been and that might be because I’ve become accustomed to English weather, but it’s not going to be as hot as it was that day.
“We certainly came up with a great performance that day, handled the heat really well, and we’re a team who bases our game on how fit we are, the intensity we can play at and backing ourselves in tough situations and coming out of the end of that.”
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Catalans Dragons’ Gil Dudson was sent to the sin-bin against St Helens after an incident within 15 seconds of the start of the 2022 Super League season!
Saints are without Will Hopoate for the trip to Stade Gilbert Brutus, but welcome Sione Mata’utia and James Bell back into the 21-man squad as they seek to build on last week’s 42-12 win at home to Leeds Rhinos.
Catalans, meanwhile, are without Arthur Mourgue, Tom Davies, Mike McMeeken and Jordan Dezaria, although Dean Whare is available again after 14 weeks out through injury as the hosts aim to rebound from the 17-16 golden-point defeat at Castleford Tigers.
“We should have finished the game easily in normal time,” Dragons head coach Steve McNamara said.
“I think the game was there, we competed hard in the first half, it was a tough game and second half we built ourselves a six-point lead and we had numerous opportunities to go further in front.
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Highlights of the Betfred Super League match between Castleford Tigers and Catalans Dragons.
“Even when it got level, we had so many opportunities and we should have done [better] in normal time and even in extra-time we did not deal with that very well.”
Named squads
Catalans Dragons: Samisoni Langi, Dean Whare, Fouad Yaha, Mitchell Pearce, Josh Drinkwater, Gil Dudson, Michael McIlorum, Julian Bousquet, Matt Whitley, Benjamin Garcia, Alrix da Costa, Benjamin Jullien, Paul Seguier, Mickael Goudemand, Matthieu Laguerre, Arthur Romano, Tyrone May, Dylan Napa, Joe Chan, Sam Kasiano, Sam Tomkins.
St Helens: Jack Welsby, Tommy Makinson, Regan Grace, Jonny Lomax, Alex Walmsley, James Roby, Matty Lees, Sione Mata’utia, Joe Batchelor, Morgan Knowles, Joey Lussick, Curtis Sironen, Agnatius Paasi, Jake Wingfield, James Bell, Josh Simm, Ben Davies, Konrad Hurrell, Dan Norman, Jon Bennison, Dan Hill.
Hull FC vs Leeds Rhinos (3pm)
Rohan Smith hopes his Leeds players will start to heed some important lessons after three more members of the Rhinos squad were handed bans following the defeat to St Helens.
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Highlights from the Super League match between St Helens and Leeds Rhinos.
Zane Tetevano (five games), Harry Newman (three games) and Bodene Thompson (two games) will all miss multiple matches, starting with Saturday’s trip to Hull FC.
Leeds have the worst disciplinary record in Super League this year and head coach Smith has called on his players to learn from these bans.
“Players can definitely learn from things,” Smith said in his weekly pre-match press conference.
“Most players grow and evolve over time and it’s up to the individual to learn from situations and take it from there.”
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Highlights of the Betfred Super League match between the Warrington Wolves and Hull FC.
Jack Walker, Cameron Smith, Jack Sinfield and Morgan Gannon all come back into contention for Leeds though, while Mikolaj Oledzki could make his 100th appearance for the club.
Hosts Hull FC will have a youthful look to their team in the injury-enforced absences of Adam Swift, Luke Gale and Manu Ma’u, plus Mitieli Vulikijapani being suspended.
The Black and Whites were edged out 4-0 away to Warrington Wolves in Round 16 and head coach Brett Hodgson is braced for a backlash from the Rhinos as his side play their first game at the MKM Stadium for six weeks.
“They’ll be desperate,” Hodgson said. “We can see where they sit in the table, and they’ll see this an opportunity to get two points and come here and upset us.
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Hull FC head coach Brett Hodgson could not fault the effort of his players in their narrow defeat to Warrington.
“We know their strengths and we know that we have to be good on both sides of the ball this week.”
Named squads
Hull FC: Josh Griffin, Darnell McIntosh, Ligi Sao, Danny Houghton, Chris Satae, Jordan Lane, Joe Lovodua, Kane Evans, Brad Fash, Jack Brown, Jordan Johnstone, Connor Wynne, Cameron Scott, Jacob Hookem, Jamie Shaul, Scott Taylor, Charlie Severs, Harvey Barron, Denive Balmforth, Davy Litten, Matty Laidlaw.
Leeds Rhinos: Jack Walker, David Fusitu’a, Liam Sutcliffe, Ash Handley, Blake Austin, Aidan Sezer, Mikolaj Oledzki, Kruise Leeming, Matt Prior, James Bentley, Rhyse Martin, Brad Dwyer, Richie Myler, Cameron Smith, Morgan Gannon, Sam Walters, Jarrod O’Connor, James Donaldson, Max Simpson, Jack Sinfield, Zak Hardaker.
Toulouse Olympique vs Hull Kingston Rovers (8pm UK time)
Sylvain Houles remains optimistic Toulouse can pull themselves out of Super League’s relegation place but knows they cannot afford to keep dropping points with 11 rounds of the regular season remaining.
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Highlights of the Betfred Super League match between Wigan Warriors and Toulouse Olympique.
A 40-6 defeat away to Wigan Warriors left the French side six points adrift of 11th-placed Wakefield Trinity at the foot of the table.
Head coach Houles, who welcomes back Mitch Garbutt, Romain Navarette and Justin Sangare for the visit of Hull KR on Saturday, is confident Toulouse can claw back that gap though.
“We know what we need to do,” Houles said. “The boys need to know exactly what we are expecting and do it together.
“It’s hard when you lose but we know we’ve got good enough players to do, but we need to start winning very quickly.”
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Highlights of the Betfred Super League match between Hull KR and Huddersfield Giants.
The Robins, who are without injured duo Ryan Hall and George King, head to France with their sights on bouncing back from a 38-10 defeat at home to Huuddersfield Giants last Sunday and head coach Tony Smith wants to see more of what his team showed in the first half of that match.
“I thought it was a really good first half of rugby league, two competitive teams,” Smith said. “I thought our defence was terrific in the first half.
“That’s the sort of game you want to be a part of. Unfortunately, second half we weren’t at the same sort of intensity.”
Named squads
Toulouse Olympique: Latrell Schaumkel, Mathieu Jussaume, Paul Marcon, Corey Norman, Lucas Albert, Romain Navarrete, Harrison Hansen, Dominique Peyroux, Anthony Marion, Joseph Bretherton, Joseph Paulo, Mitch Garbutt, Chris Hankinson, Justin Sangare, Guy Armitage, Matty Russell, Olly Ashall-Bott, Nathan Peats, Lambert Belmas, Tony Gigot, Daniel Alvaro.
Hull Kingston Rovers: Lachlan Coote, Ben Crooks, Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Albert Vete, Matt Parcell, Dean Hadley, Matty Storton, Jez litten, Korbin Sims, Elliot Minchella, Jimmy Keinhorst, Will Dagger, Mikey Lewis, Rowan Milnes, Will Maher, Ethan Ryan, Sam Wood, Greg Richards, Frankie Halton, Will Tata.
