Catalans cruise past Halifax to make last eight

Catalans Dragons cruised into the last eight of the Challenge Cup as they comfortably saw off Halifax Panthers.

Any hopes the Championship side had of an upset faded inside 14 minutes as wing Tom Davies scored a hat-trick.

Paul Seguier, Arthur Romano, Cesar Rouge and Chris Satae added further tries, with James Saltonstall grabbing a consolation score for Halifax.

The French side complete the quarter-final line-up with the draw taking place on Monday night (20:45 GMT).

Catalans, last season's Super League runners-up, have started this season strongly with four wins out of five in the league.

There was no let-up here against second tier opponents as Davies crossed from their first attack.

The winger added his second after five minutes and completed his hat-trick following fine work from centre Matt Ikuvalu.

They continued to dominate their opponents, scoring once more before the interval and three times after it.

But Halifax were determined to avoid a whitewash and local lad Saltonstall touched down from the final play of the game to get his team on the board.

The Dragons have not gone beyond the quarter-finals since lifting the Challenge Cup in 2018, but are now part of an all-Super League last eight with holders Leigh Leopards, Wigan Warriors, St Helens, Castleford Tigers, Hull KR, Huddersfield Giants and Warrington Wolves.

Halifax: Woodburn-Hall; Saltonstall, McComb, Tibbs, Eden; Jouffret, Keyes; Fairbank, Inman, Larroyer, Kavanagh, Gee, C. Davies.

Interchanges: O. Davies, Tanagata, Lannon, Widdop.

Catalans: Rouge; T Davies, Ikuvalu, Laguerre, Yaha; Abdull, Fages; Navarrete, McIlorum, Bousquet, McMeeken, Seguier, Garcia.

Interchanges: Romano, Da Costa, Satae, Dezaria.

Referee: Liam Rush.