Salford snatch remarkable 40-40 draw at Catalans Dragons

Rangi Chase: Try scorer as Salford share eighty points

Salford secured a point in the final minute as they played out a remarkable 40-40 draw at Catalans Dragons.

A Josh Griffin penalty - given after an incorrect play the ball by Morgan Escare - was the pivotal moment in a frantic denouement which had looked a remote possibility as Salford raced into a 22-0 lead at the Stade Gilbert Brutus.

Junior Sau dotted down first after three minutes and then Tommy Lee went under the posts. Griffin converted one and then another after Cory Patterson went in after good work from Theo Fages.

Catalans were not helping themselves and conceded a penalty from the next kick-off, off which Lee went in for a second, scampering out of acting half to cash in.

Todd Carney sparked the hosts' rally, putting Zeb Taia in for a try which Scott Dureau converted, and then Vincent Duport crossed in the corner, Dureau tagging on a second goal.

Catalans further reduced the arrears before the break, Ben Pomeroy going under the sticks after a Dureau pass, with the creator adding a third goal to make it 22-18 at the break.

But Fages kept Salford in control after the break, racing away to score off an Elliott Whitehead error, before Pomeroy's second - a close-range barge - provided the response.

Rangi Chase increased Salford's lead when Kevin Locke knocked his own kick down to him, and when Griffin added the extras it was 32-24 to Salford.

Dureau then kicked to the right corner and Michael Oldfield climbed to take it and score, with Dureau's goal and subsequent penalty levelling things up at 32-32.

The playmaker's kicking would go awry, though. Whitehead atoned for his earlier mistake to charge over, while Ian Henderson also went in off a set-piece, but Dureau was unable to convert either.

That left Salford eight behind with five minutes left and they quickly wiped six of them out as Patterson scored his second of the game after his side reclaimed a kick-off. 

Griffin kept his nerve to convert and then split the posts from 10 metres for a point in the shadow of the whistle.