A 24-000-mile journey by controversial Australian international Greg Bird could not prevent Catalans going down to a fourth defeat in five games.

The 25-year-old former Cronulla player was forced to return home to Sydney last Thursday to attend a court hearing into an alleged assault and was not expected back until Sunday.

But he managed to get an earlier flight and arrived in England on Saturday, in time to meet up with his new Dragons team-mates ahead of their game against Wakefield at Belle Vue.

"It was his decision to play because we didn't know about his fitness," said Catalans general manager Christophe Levy.

Bird, who made his engage Super League debut in the Dragons' 24-22 home defeat by Castleford last Saturday, was once more introduced off the bench by coach Kevin Walters but he was unable to inspire the Perpignan team.

The Wildcats were bolstered by the return from injury of scrum-half Danny Brough, hooker Tevita Leo-Latu and winger Aaron Murphy, who scored the last of his side's five tries on his first appearance of the season.

Wakefield edged a dull and largely uneventful first half thanks to tries from centre Sean Gleeson and stand-off Tony Martin in the first 15 minutes, both converted by Martin, which put them in the driving seat.

But Wakefield winger Damien Blanch conceded a soft drop-out restart from a speculative kick and the Catalans built pressure from the error for substitute Jean-Phillippe Baile to go in for a try, converted by Thomas Bosc.

Five minutes from the break the visitors got to within two points at 12-10 when when winger Dimitri Pelo crossed wide out to leave the game finely balanced.

However, the Wildcats regained control in the second half with the aid of tries from Blanch and centre Ryan Atkins before the hour mark.

A Martin penalty on 70 minutes and another two minutes from time finally clinched a fourth win of the season that lifted the Wildcats back into the top four before Murphy picked up a loose ball on the hooter to wrap things up and Brough added the conversion.