Wakefield Trinity 'in a good place' despite loss at Leeds Rhinos as coach proud of 'courageous' fightback
Wakefield Trinity coach Daryl Powell insisted his team are “in a great place”, despite their 22-18 defeat at Leeds Rhinos today.
Injury-hit Trinity trailed 22-6 at half-time after Leeds dominated the opening 40 minutes, but the tables were following the interval as the visitors went agonisingly close to snatching the spoils. In the end, two penalty goals made the difference as the six tries were shared.
Trinity’s sixth defeat from 13 games dropped them to seventh in the table at the half way point of the Betfred Super League season. Powell, though, is confident his promoted side will get better as players return from injury.
Rhinos scored 10 of their points in a seven-minute spell just before the break and Powell admitted Wakefield weren’t good enough for half the game, but he had nothing but praise for the way they battled back. “I think we are in a great place, we are super-competitive each week,” the coach reflected.
“That game could have easily gone the other way. We know we need to improve to win games like that and I am confident we will. We are going to get better through the season; we are on a great path at the moment. We are growing all the time, but every passing week we are starting to grow a bit more confidence. It was great, what we did in the second half.”
Powell was “proud of the courage we showed” as they got up off the floor to push Rhinos all the way. “It was tough to take, but we can’t play like that in a half of rugby against the better teams and expect to win, so we will learn from that,” he said of the result.
Assessing the game, he accepted: “I thought we were pretty poor in the first half. Leeds came with a fair bit of intent and I don’t think we matched that. We conceded a pretty sloppy try on the back of defending backwards - I thought the game was too quick; for any team, to defend at that intensity is tough.
“Then we got into good attacking position and we put the ball down. I thought that was the story - when they are playing hot, Leeds, they are pretty hot and they are playing touch and pass almost.
“That was the first half and it wasn’t the team I know we are. We did some simple things in the second half that got us a bit of ascendancy and I thought we were by far the better team in the second half, but couldn’t quite - at the end there - get over the line.”
Trinity were missing a host of first-choice players, including their number six and seven. “I reckon if Jake Trueman had been out there it would have been a different outcome, but he’s not and that’s the way it is,” Powell added. “The boys have been class and the second half showed what we’re about. We are not going away and I think we’ll learn quite a lot from this.”