One big positive, but boss makes 'not a lot out of it' admission as Wakefield Trinity lose at Leeds Rhinos
Getting through injury-free was the major positive for coach Daryl Powell following Wakefield Trinity’s 18-10 loss at Leeds Rhinos in today’s (Friday) Wetherby Whaler Festive Challenge.
“We look all right,” Powell said in his post-match press conference. That was one of the main things, getting through pretty healthy. Harvey Smith got a bit [of an issue] with his toe, but he went back on so he was fine. Apart from that, we are okay. We got to camp on January 3 so it was pretty important we are all right for that.”
Rhinos scored three tries to Wakefield’s two and reflecting on the match itself, Powell noted: “It’s more for the fans, this game. Both clubs picked a pretty scratch team with a lot of young players in there and a few senior boys mixed in and I don’t think we got an awful lot out of it.
“There’s a bit in and around the ruck area - how it is going to be managed this year, which is a little bit different. For some individual players it gives us a chance to sit down and have a look at a couple of bits, but we’re not going to do too much on the back of that - maybe just the ruck area and the way referees are going to interpret that this year.”
Powell conceded: “Territorially, particularly in the first half, the game was pretty heavily in Leeds’ favour. We made a lot of changes and I thought we did all right in the second half to keep the scoreline tight. We were unlucky a couple of times not to score.
“It is hard for players to play at 11.30am, but I thought we did all right with it, it was a competitive game and Leeds deserved to win. You don’t get two points for it so we will move on and enjoy our camp and put some final preparation pieces together, then look towards February.”