CATALANS DRAGONS won’t be getting carried away with a dominant win over fellow Super League strugglers Castleford Tigers.

The best is yet to come according to coach Joel Tomkins, who has already got one eye on next season and the new-look Dracs.

He said after Saturday night’s 38-4 win at Stade Gilbert Brutus: “I’m relieved more than anything. I was pretty nervous coming into this game because I felt like it’s a game we should have won.

“Looking at the team that we had out and obviously Castleford are struggling with a few injuries so I felt like on paper we should win this game.

“It didn’t feel like it at half-time to be honest with you but our second-half performance was much-improved.

“I was really disappointed with the first half, I think we missed the jump but our bench probably turned it around for us. (Romain) Navarrete and (Jordan) Dezaria were pretty good coming off the bench and then we scored some nice tries in the second half.

“There were some smiles on faces in the changing rooms but we won’t be getting carried away with what we’ve done tonight. We beat Huddersfield 32-0 here six or seven weeks ago and then we turned out a couple of poor performances on the back of it.

“So we’ll be keeping this one in perspective. We’ve played against at Castleford team that is struggling and we might have scored a couple of nice tries but we were way off in the first half.”

Tomkins believes the future is bright for Catalans, although their next immediate challenge is the visit of champions Wigan Warriors.

He added: “We’ve got Wigan here next weekend so if we don’t improve on tonight the scoreline will be reversed, no doubt about it.

“We’ve got nothing to lose next week we’ll go into that game throwing everything at them and trying to get a result. It’s our last home game so we want to put a show on for our fans.

“There are plenty of things for us to work on from tonight.

“So there are some smiles tonight and I’m really pleased for the players to get the result but we’re back to work on Monday with a massive challenge facing us on Saturday.

“We’ve had a busy 12 weeks with recruitment and everything behind the scenes and we are trying to get things in place for 2026. There’s still a job to do in 2025 but there is some excitement building within our four walls at the club about next season.

“We’re not going to get carried away but we are making some signings that we think will be good for the culture of the club moving forward.

“We want to be up there competing next year but we won’t be making any bold statements.

“One thing I guarantee is that we’ll be a different outfit next year and we will be competing for things.”