WIDNES Vikings travel to the Stade Gilbert Brutus on Saturday in what will be Francis Cummins’ first game in charge.

Vikings have a good record against the Dragons and last year went to the south of France and won to avoid the Million Pound Game.

Although Catalans are also in the bottom four, their performances have gone up a notch in recent weeks – and they have secured a place in the Challenge Cup semi-finals.

Cummins believes his side can learn something from the Dragons.

He said: “Catalans have had a tough time, but they have been able to bring some players in.

“They have just simplified their game the last four weeks and are playing to their strengths.

“They are forcing teams into errors.

“It is tough to go down there.

“We should take a leaf out of their book and say let’s trade each other.

“We will have to work a bit harder than them and deliver what we practise, especially turning over in the right part of the field and see them come away from their own line.

“We are in a tough position – but if you look at the way we have been playing we have never stopped fighting and have not been hammered yet.

“We have had four and five players playing out of position and so that shows great character about the team.

“We have got to be confident we can do a job on these teams and, without giving too much away, there are a couple of areas we can work on.

“We are training really well – they have all year – but it is game day that has been the issue. We are working hard to sort it out.”

Cummins revealed that captain Chris Houston has returned to team training, whilst Rhys Hanbury and Krisnan Inu are also closing in on a return to action.

He said: “Chris has been back training. Krisnan has only been doing light training, but it’s nice to see him running alongside the team.

“Rhys Hanbury is back in training too, so we’ve got people coming back.

“We knew we were in for a tough ride, especially with two broken legs at the same time.

“We’ve had smaller injuries along the way, but we feel like we’re coming back.”

Hep Cahill has been ruled out for the rest of this campaign after sustaining an Achilles injury.

Cahill came off against Wakefield Trinity.

After visiting a specialist late last week, it was confirmed that the 31-year-old has been ruled out for the season.