Rugby League: Goodway in good spirits as Paris put paid to Perth

Rugby League

Paris St-Germain's multi-national side, who have not been able to beat European opposition at home this year, defeated Perth Reds to become only the third team to overcome an Australasian club in the World Club Championship.

The French club shocked the West Australian side with a 24-0 success at Charlety Stadium on Saturday that took them, at least temporarily, to the top of Pool B.

In typically cosmopolitan style, two tries from the centre Jason Eade and other touchdowns from the New Zealander David Lomax, the Frenchman Fabien Devecchi and the Australian Deon Bird gave them a surprisingly comfortable victory over a Perth team who have lost two of their three away games.

The victory represents a remarkable turn-around in fortunes for the French side under their new coach, Andy Goodway, the former Oldham coach who was in charge for only the fourth time. "It's the best we've played since I've been here," Goodway said. "We played well in spells against London and Wigan but we competed for 80 minutes against Perth. The lads worked hard and got a couple of lucky breaks."

The result puts Paris, who travel to Perth and New South Wales for the return games next month, in a great position to grab the play-off place against the fourth-placed European Pool A team.

However, Goodway's sights are firmly focused on Super League survival after winning only two matches this season - at Castleford and Sheffield.

"All I'm concerned about right now is Halifax away next week," the former Wigan and Great Britain forward said.

"A lot of people are saying it's a lost cause, but I think we have enough about us to get us out of trouble.

"Things are slowly getting better. I am probably too much of a pessimist to be a coach and I will never say I am going to do this or do that.

"But I will be doing my best and I'll make sure my players do their best to retain our Super League place. We need to retain the credibility of the European Super League."