Catalans Dragons find ‘clarity’ ahead of Hull KR as Sam Tomkins update given

Joel Tomkins insists Catalans Dragons have found ‘clarity’ as they prepare for tonight’s clash with Challenge Cup winners Hull KR.

It’s been a miserable few weeks for the Dragons, who parted company with Steve McNamara last month on the back of three successive defeats. Tomkins is the man who has picked up the head coach reins on an interim basis and the hope is that the Dragons will be able to stop the rot and climb the table again over the coming months.

However, Tomkins’ first two games in charge have not gone to plan, with Catalans losing 48-0 to Wigan Warriors before being thumped 34-0 by Hull FC last time out. The former Wigan Warriors man has had his work cut out in Perpignan then, but he’s used the last two weeks to work on his week and he’s hoping to see the effects of that at Craven Park this evening.

“It’s been a very good week,” Tomkins said in his pre-match press conference. “Last week we did some hard training and got some clarity within the group and this week we’ve been focusing on the game on Friday against Hull KR.

“It’s a big challenge and obviously they’re coming off the back of a win in the Challenge Cup final but we’re looking forward to the game.

“It’s been a big focus this week, trying to build the connection. As a group we’ve gone through a difficult time on the field with results but I feel like we’ve built a good connection through some hard work and hopefully we can put that onto the field on Friday night.”

He added: “As a group we want to see that connection, we want to see effort areas and play for 80 minutes and if we do all those things then we don’t need to worry about the result, it’s about the performance as a group.”

Catalans Dragons injury update

Tomkins has been able to bring a raft of senior faces back into the fold this week, with Sam Tomkins, Tevita Pangai Jr, Julian Bousquet, Tariq Sims and Bayley Sironen among those returning to the side this week.

On his team news he said: “We’ve got some players back, Tevita will come back into the group.

“Sam is a 50/50, if not this week, he definitely plays next week and we have some other boys in there, Tariq Sims will play this week. There’ll be a few positional changes potentially but we have some players back.”