PERPIGNAN: Former Kangaroo Trent Barrett was man of the match for Wigan as they crushed Catalans Dragons 50-26 to set up an English Super League final eliminator against Leeds.

Pat Richards scored two tries in his personal haul of 22 points while former St George Illawarra and Test five-eighth Barrett also claimed a brace in Wigan's nine-try romp on Saturday.

Dragons winger Dimitri Pelo scored two of his side's five tries in a match that proved to be the last for foundation players Alex Chan and John Wilson.

Coach Mick Potter, a former St George Illawarra lower-grade coach, will also leave the team, who were playing in their first play-off series and had beaten Warrington 46-8 last week. Potter succeeds Daniel Anderson at St Helens from next season.

A win on Friday in Headingley against Leeds, who lost to St Helens in their qualifying semi-final, will put Brian Noble's side into the October 4 grand final at Old Trafford against the Saints.

"The start of the game was really hard in relation to our defence and that desire set us up when the score was 20-20," Noble said.

"They looked to be out of steam then but to be fair they pushed us all the way. To come here and score 50 points is a special effort, and some of the tries we scored were quite fluent.

Potter said: "We were disappointed with our execution in the first half. We missed some opportunities."

AFP