Joel Tomkins on Catalans Dragons loss: “This feels like rock bottom for us”

Catalans Dragons interim boss Joel Tomkins didn’t hide his disappointment when speaking post-match after his side’s 34-0 loss against Hull FC.

It was Catalans third nilling in a row, and Tomkins admitted that he really hopes this is their lowest point of the season.

Whilst they are only four points off the top six, it’s looking to be a bigger challenge than maybe he expected it to be.

Speaking to Sky Sports post-match, he said: “It certainly has. This feels like rock bottom for us to be honest.

“Hopefully, it is anyway, really poor tonight. We just shot ourselves in the foot in the first half with too many errors, too many penalties, it’s the story of our season, really.

“Anytime there’s an arm wrestle or a grind, we seem to be the first team that cracks every time. We’ll be doing some work next week, that’s for sure.

“This needs to be rock bottom for us because we need to start climbing out of this hole that we’ve found ourselves in.”

Tomkins couldn’t quite believe just how poor his side were in today’s performance, especially considering how well they’d trained during the week.

He added: “I’m shocked at the performance, I’ll be honest with you. I thought we had a good week; we made some steps in the right direction, got some players back, and it’s a reality check.

“It doesn’t matter how well you train in the week; it’s the results on the weekend, and we’re finding that out the hard way. We’ll work hard next week, but it’ll count for nothing if we don’t turn up to Hull KR the week after Wembley and go and do a job.”

Tomkins still wants the coaching role despite Catalans Dragons awful form

Despite such poor performances, Tomkins stated that whilst it’s been tough, he’s looking forward to hopefully carrying this team forward for the rest of the season.

He finished: “It’s tough, a baptism of fire. This week’s just been an extension of the last.

“In all honesty, I’m relishing the challenge, and I look forward to the rest of the season.

“Hopefully, we can look back on this then and be proud of our efforts to claw ourselves out of this situation. I’ll be doing everything I can to help the players do that.”

Défaite. pic.twitter.com/Q0Z3sQ5CEd

— Dragons Catalans (@DragonsOfficiel) May 31, 2025