The Dragons celebrate their win against Widnes
Catalans recorded their third win in nine days as early pacesetters Widnes fell to a third successive defeat.
Widnes Vikings were without key men Kevin Brown, Lloyd White, Chris Bridge and Hep Cahill and the late withdrawal of ex-Catalans back-rower Setaimata Sa meant the bench had a particularly youthful look.
Cumbrian duo Jordan Johnstone and Sam Brooks joined Ed Chamberlain and Manase Manuokafoa among the replacements. And things took a turn for the worse when Australian centre Charly Runciman limped off after just eight minutes to be replaced by Chamberlain.
Catalans opened the scoring on three minutes when giant Australian Dave Taylor capitalised on a Vincent Duport break to send Pat Richards in at the left corner. However, it quickly became clear the Vikings didn't come to the south of France to roll over.
That said, neither did they look especially dangerous with ball-in-hand. The Dragons thought they had increased their lead on 20 minutes but Tony Gigot's touchdown was ruled out by the video referee.
Widnes enjoyed more of the territory as the first half wore on but couldn't convert pressure into points so went in 4-0 down at the break. The start of the second half had some similarities with the way the first had begun with Taylor this time providing the killer pass for Duport to cross two minutes in to make it 8-0.
Morgan Escare made a mess of fielding the restart kick but Widnes couldn't take advantage from the subsequent set. Just when it looked the Vikings might never score, a long ball from Joe Mellor got Corey Thompson over wide out on 55 minutes and it was game on at 8-6 when Rhys Hanbury slotted the conversion.
A high tackle on Johnstone gifted Hanbury a further two points from a penalty goal to level things up on the hour. The Dragons poured forward in the latter stages but in the end it took a bit of luck to break the deadlock as Taylor profited from a ricochet to score the winning try with Pat Richards adding the extras.
Thomas Bosc's drop-goal made it 15-8 and a last gasp Eloi Pelissier try completed the scoring. A valiant effort by the Vikings but not quite good enough.
