Pat Richards kicked a dramatic 80th-minute goal to snatch victory for Wigan in rain-lashed Perpignan.

The Warriors trailed throughout the match until Australian stand-off Trent Barrett sent captain Sean O'Loughlin crashing over for a try to tie the scores in the 78th minute.

Richards stepped up to strike the vital conversion to give Brian Noble's side their first points in engage Super League XII.

The result ruined the party for Catalans, who returned to their redeveloped Gilbert Brutus Stadium.

Earlier there were serious doubts whether the game could go ahead as heavy rain poured down in the south of France.

But referee Ian Smith gave the match the go-ahead after a pitch inspection - much to the relief of the 7,000-plus crowd which included several hundred travelling Wigan fans.

The Dragons, who drew 10-10 at Hull in their opening game, adapted better to the sodden conditions to take a 10-6 half-time lead.

They capitalised on a string of Wigan errors and opened the scoring as Alex Chan punched a hole in the middle of the defence to touch down.

Aaron Gorrell, one of Catalans' five off-season recruits from the Australian NRL, kicked the conversion and added two more penalties.

But a piece of magic from his former St George-Illawarra team-mate Barrett brought Wigan back into the match.

His wonderful pass put Gareth Hock through a gap and he unselfishly offloaded to Chris Ashton, with Richards adding on the extras.

Both sides had tries ruled out shortly after the restart before the Dragons edged further ahead when Justin Murphy pounced on Casey McGuire's measured kick to make it 14-6.

Phil Bailey's debut try closed the gap to two points before the visitors were reduced to 12 men when Hock was sin-binned for dissent.

Gorrell's subsequent penalty opened up a four-point gap before Wigan staged their late comeback.