Two French sides reach last sixteen

Villeneuve progressed to the fifth round of the Challenge Cup yesterday with a 17-8 victory at York – despite playing most of the game with 12 men. Daniel Vergniol scored the first try for the French side, Laurent Frayssinous converting and then kicking two penalties before Laurent Carrasco was sent off before half-time for elbowing.

A try from Brock Mueller after 55 minutes killed off the Northern Ford Premiership side, who scored through a Scott Yeaman try which Jamie Benn converted to add to his earlier penalty.

In a bad-tempered match, York's Shaun Austerfield was shown the yellow card for laying on, while Carl Hall and Romain Gagliazzo were sent to the sin-bin for fighting.

The French Cup holders, Union Treiziste Catalane, made it two French sides in the last 16 for tonight's draw when they beat Chorley 20-6. Renaud Guigue chipped in with two tries after Patrice Gomez had scored the opening touchdown.

On Saturday, the Leeds Rhinos deservedly beat the newly-crowned world club champions Bradford 17-4, inflicting on the Bulls their first defeat since their move to Valley Parade. The Leeds half-backs Ryan Sheridan and Ben Walker scored all the points, each scored a try with scrum-half Sheridan also dropping a goal while Walker, their new Australian stand-off, added four goals.

The Bulls captain Robbie Paul suffered a recurrence of a neck injury he suffered in the win over the Newcastle Knights and his replacement Leon Pryce was placed on report after clashing with Kevin Sinfield.

Wigan strolled to a 34-10 win over Hull, also on Saturday. The Warriors look rusty early on, but Gary Connolly's try a minute before the break left the visitors facing a 12-point deficit at half-time, and although Hull fought back immediately after the re-start, three tries in 13 second-half minutes ended their resistance.

St Helens also had a comfortable win, 40-6, with Sean Long making his long-awaited return from injury against Oldham. The Cup holders scored eight tries against determined NFP opponents at a soggy Stalybridge.