WAKEFIELD head coach Daryl Powell admitted his side must improve ahead of bigger tests to come despite beating the heat to sink Toulouse 22-18 in a thrilling Betfred Super League clash in France.

The hosts held off a late surge to strengthen their place in the play-off positions but Powell’s attention has already turned to upcoming fixtures against Wembley-bound duo Hull KR and Wigan.

Powell told a press conference: “They’re awesome clubs and we’ll have to put our wits against them and we’ll have to improve from that, particularly our starts.

“I think that’s an issue in our last four games because we have gone behind and we haven’t started great, so without making a huge issue out of it, it’s something that we need to fix up a bit.”

John Cartwright marked his debut as Catalans Dragons head coach with a six-try, 36-22 win over struggling York at the Community Stadium.

Cartwright, who was controversially ousted as Hull FC coach earlier this season, watched a second-half burst that proved enough to sink the Knights and move the French side to within two points of sixth-placed Wigan in the table.

Catalans interim coach Ryan Sheridan told Sky Sports: “We look at what we’ve got coming up and it is really exciting. We’ll get the confidence back. Hopefully John will give us that and it’s exciting moving forward.”

York have now lost eight of their last nine league games but head coach Mark Applegarth retains belief in his side, insisting: “We’ve in that vicious circle at the moment where, until we learn those lessons, it’s all on us and we can’t blame anyone but ourselves.”

St Helens head coach Paul Rowley slammed his side after their lacklustre 30-10 defeat at Castleford, insisting: “We could catch Blackbrook under-12s and give them that much possession and get burned.”

Castleford boss Ryan Carr indicated there would be good news over the future of hat-trick hero Jason Qareqare, whose contract is up at the end of the season.

Carr revealed: “Hopefully we’ll have some good news during this time off. We’re more than confident that he’ll be staying with us.”