Sunday 3rd February 2013, 15:00 - Round:1

Laurent Frayssinous started his Super League coaching career with a win as his Catalan Dragons defeated Hull KR at MS3 Craven Park.

Frayssinous had the unenviable task of replacing Trent Robinson as the Dragons coach, but Robinson left the team in great shape after finishing fourth last season.

The rookie coach reduced his pre-season to six weeks and that seemed to do the trick as Catalan started with a comfortable win.

One of the few bright spots for Rovers last season was keeping the French side to three tries or less in three close encounters, but Catalan scored four in the first half today after Michael Dobson had given the hosts a third-minute lead with a penalty.

The lead only lasted four minutes as Thomas Bosc sent Zeb Taia over for a try and Bosc converted for a 6-2 lead, which Jason Baitieri extended as he took advantage of some slack defending from Rovers.

Super League's oldest player Steve Menzies then rolled back the years with two tries in the closing stages of the first half.

His first came when Brent Webb's pass caught Rovers off guard on their left-hand side. The best try of the half came on the opposite flank when Jamal Fakir broke with electric pace before sending the 39-year-old Menzies away for a simple score. Bosc took his conversion tally to three as the home side struggled.

Rovers' problems worsened three minutes after the break. A breakdown in communication 20 metres from their own line between Con Mika and Lincoln Withers gifted Catalan possession from which Fakir ran through unopposed to score. Bosc missed the conversion but the Dragons led 26-2.

Hull KR finally got over the Catalan line in the 51st minute through Dobson following a superb offload from Cory Paterson.

It was just what Rovers needed with half an hour to play and another Paterson offload helped set up Rovers' second try. A Dobson kick was dropped a metre from the try-line by Webb and fell invitingly for Josh Hodgson to pick up and score, with Dobson tagging on the extras.

Suddenly Rovers were on top and they made the most of their dominance when winger Omari Caro went over from Liam Salter's flick pass.

However, Catalan then secured victory with the killer try. Young prop Julian Bousquet powered through a gap in defence and offloaded for Webb to score.

The game's final score came when Hodgson found Withers to open his account for the season with two minutes remaining. Dobson's conversion made the final score 32-24.