Scott Dureau made a winning return to action as he inspired the Catalan Dragons to a comfortable 46-18 win against London Broncos at the start of the Magic Weekend.
The Australian half-back, who returned for Dragons for the first time after having a tumour removed from behind his eye last September, scored an impressive 18 points to add to their seven tries.
The Dragons' size and power proved too much for the Londoners with exciting duo Morgan Escare and Frederic Vaccari scoring a brace apiece in the rout as the weekend jamboree at the Etihad Stadium got underway.
The rugby league fest, which is being staged for the second consecutive spring in Manchester, got off to the perfect start for Dureau, who was voted as the Super League's best scrum-half last season.
He intercepted Shane Rodney's pass from the scrum for the opening try of the match, before adding the extra points in bright sunshine.
Soon after, young French full-back Escare used his explosive pace to run clear of the Londoners' backline to add a second and his ninth of the year.
However, the Broncos, who had dominated possession from the start, responded almost immediately with a try from Chris Bailey and Michael Witt drilled the extra points.
And they squared things up when a high kick was collected by Witt who then cleverly broke a few tackles before going under the post.
Just before half-time, Scott Jerome's kick bounced horribly for Liam O'Callaghan and that allowed Daryl Millard to sneak over.
Catalans made a perfect start to the second period thanks to neat handling by Vaccari before diving over the whitewash to push them ten points clear.
And they soon took the game away from the Broncos as Steve Menzies not only won his side possession, but his offload sent Vaccari away for his second of the afternoon.
A lovely one-handed offload from Zeb Taia then sent Escare away for yet another score for the Dragons.
Kieran Dixon then showed tremendous pace to break a tackle before gathering his own kick and diving over for arguably the try of the game.
But Taia and Leon Pryce completed an emphatic victory for the Dragons' who recorded just their third Magic win in seven attempts.