Good and bad of PSG found in Pastre-Courtine

Rugby LeagueWarrington 48 Paris St-Germain 24

Paris, capable of some thrilling rugby with the ball in their hands, now need to master a few of the basics if they are to prosper on their travels in the European Super League.

The French produced some startling moments of innovation at Wilderspool yesterday, but allowed Warrington to continue their good start to the season by making too many fundamental mistakes.

Their winger, Regis Pastre-Courtine, who once spent a season with Batley, was a case in point. He scored three tries, but if he had taken two other good chances the game might not have run away from them in the way it did.

Warrington had already struck first through the impressive Toa Kohe-Love when Pastre-Courtine scored his first, chasing Patrick Entat's clever kick.

A second from Kohe-Love, set up like his first by Paul Sculthorpe, and a close-range dart from John Hough took Warrington comfortably into the lead and when Kelly Shelford exchanged passes with Kohe-Love to go over Paris were wilting.

It could have been a different story if Pastre-Courtine had not been turned on to his back by Kohe-Love to deny him one try and then dropped an interception from Shelford with the field open ahead of him.

He did claim his second, from a slick pass by Pierre Chamorin to bring the French back into it, but tries from Chris Rudd and two from Ian Knott stabilised Warrington's position, before the Paris substitute, Eric Vergniol, got them on the scoreboard again.

Paris, hindered by the sin-binning of two of their most experienced players, Chamorin and Entat, were too far out of touch.

Lee Penny completed Warrington's scoring before Pastre-Courtine rounded off his hat-trick with a storming run down the left.

Richly entertaining as they were at times, they never had the steadiness to dent Warrington's record of four wins in five games.

"What people have to remember is that we have only ever had five matches as a team," Tas Baitieri, their chief executive, said. "We are going to get a lot better."

Warrington: Penny; Forster, Kohe-Love, Rudd, Henare; Harris, Shelford; Hilton, Hough, Chambers, Knott, Cullen, Sculthorpe. Substitutes: Maffi, Jones, Sumner, Bennett.

Paris St-Germain: Bagdad; Bomati, Chamorin, Lucchese, Pastre-Courtine; De Vecchi, Entat; Kacala, Torreilles, Utoikamanu, Adams, Cabestany, Pech. Substitutes: Bloomfield, Lane, Cervello, Vergniol.

Referee: S Presley (Castleford).