WARRINGTON Wolves suffered their first Super League defeat of the season in Perpignan this afternoon.

After a poor first half in which Wolves trailed 18-0, Tony Smith’s men cut the gap to six points with tries from Joel Monaghan and Gary Wheeler in the opening nine minutes of the second half but a Scott Dureau penalty kick seemed to take the steam out of the fightback.

Two tries from Cook Islands international Zeb Taia put the game out of Wolves’ reach as they fell to their first loss in Perpignan since 2012.

Wolves, backing up after the monumental physical effort against St George Illawarra Dragons in the World Club Series last Friday, looked out of sorts from the start in the south of France.

Too many handling errors and not completing sets on their own terms against a keen home defence left them on the back foot for most of the opening 40 minutes and Catalans made them pay.

Wolves’ pack was unable to assert dominance and there was no stamp of authority from the new half-back partnership of Gary Wheeler with Gareth O’Brien.

While Wolves struggled to come to terms with that change, Australian Todd Carney was having a whale of a time on his Super League debut.

Les Catalans opened the scoring after Chris Hill gave a penalty away for interference on Ian Henderson.

From the penalty, the ball was swept left where Scott Dureau and Zeb Taia fed Willie Tonga over between Joel Monaghan and Chris Bridge. Dureau’s conversion made it 6-0 after eight minutes.

Kevin Penny came to the rescue from a scrum when Carney’s long pass sent Michael Oldfield heading to the corner but the full back’s pace got him in place to block the Australian 10 metres from home.

Then a Carney pass that put Oldfield over was ruled forward and it was a further sign of the stand off’s growing influence when a 40/20 attempt paid off as Dragons pressure mounted.

Wolves tried to turn the tide after a Dragons handling mishap and Wheeler’s short pass looked to have put Chris Hill over from 10 metres but somehow Morgan Escare got his hands and body beneath the ball to hold up the England prop over the line.

An attempted chargedown backfired for Wolves when Ben Harrison knocked on.

Dragons raided and after Dureau’s switch of play Elliott Whitehead and Ben Pomeroy combined for Oldfield to dive over by the corner flag.

Dureau added the extras from the touchline to make it 12-0 after 25 minutes.

The lead was soon stretched by another six points, Catalans breaking from halfway around the outside of Wolves’ defence with Vincent Duport collecting Willie Tonga’s long pass and fending off a feeble Wheeler covering tackle as he stretched out for home.

Again Dureau converted from wide out to complete the first-half scoring.

Despite giving two penalties away in the opening exchanges of the second half, Wolves came close to cutting the arrears with Wheeler supporting an O’Brien break but he was hauled down two metres short by covering Oldfield.

A knock-on from an attempted Dureau intercept gave Wolves head and feed at the scrum and the ball was sent right where Ryan Atkins’ grubber of an offload was picked up by Joel Monaghan who stepped over for his first try of the season. O’Brien’s extras cut the arrears to 12 points after 45 minutes.

Wolves threatened again on the right and after Duport knocked on an intercept attempt as Chris Bridge attempted to send over Monaghan there was Wheeler playing to the whistle, scooping up the loose ball and darting over from 15 metres. O’Brien’s goal made it 18-12 after 49 minutes.

Two successive penalties conceded by Wolves, one for a ball steal and then a high tackle on the try line by Micky Higham on Ian Henderson, allowed Dureau to boot over two points and open up an eight-point gap.

Matty Russell attempted to weave a route to the line from dummy half but losing the ball in the act of scoring allowed Catalans to break down the right through Morgan Escare and Michael Oldfield.

Although Penny grounded Oldfield, the ball was flashed to the left flank where Wheeler and Monaghan fell off Zeb Taia as he crossesdfrom 15 metres.

The extras from Dureau put Dragons back in charge at 26-12 and that was improved by six points three minutes later when Bridge fell for a huge Carney dummy that led to Taia crossing again.

Although young back rower Joe Philbin crossed for a deserved score off Wheeler to cap a strong individual second-half showing, Oldfield outjumped Russell for the final Catalans try in the 73rd minute.

Dragons: Morgan Escaré; Michael Oldfield, Ben Pomeroy, Willie Tonga, Vincent Duport; Todd Carney, Scott Dureau; Louis Anderson , Ian Henderson, Jeff Lima, Zeb Taia, Elliott Whitehead, Greg Mounis. Subs: Benjamin Garcia, Julian Bousquet, Antoni Maria, Jason Baitieri.

Wolves: Kevin Penny; Joel Monaghan, Chris Bridge, Ryan Atkins, Matty Russell; Gareth O’Brien, Gary Wheeler; Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Ashton Sims, Ben Currie, James Laithwaite, Ben Westwood. Subs: Ben Harrison, Micky Higham, Roy Asotasi, Joe Philbin.