Wakefield Trinity's Daryl Powell 'comfortable' with facing Leeds Rhinos in play-offs despite 24-22 defeat

Rhinos have the upper hand in the race for a top-two finish after fighting back from 16 points down to win 24-22 at Wakefield in Friday’s second versus first derby. They are now four points ahead of Trinity who will drop to third in Betfred Super League if Wigan Warriors beat Toulouse Olympique this evening (Saturday).

The leading two at the end of the regular season will have a bye through the first round of the play-offs and home advantage in sudden-death semi-finals. Third and fourth will be at home to sixth and fifth respectively in the opening stage.

Brad Arthur’s Leeds did the league double over Wakefield, but Powell’s men were won a Challenge Cup tie early in the season and he insisted he’d have no fears about facing Rhinos again. “The evening was awesome, the club’s going places and we are going to get better, that’s clear,” he said after a sell-out crowd of more than 9,000 watched Friday’s thriller.

“The story this year’s not over; Leeds might have got us tonight, but I am pretty comfortable going against them again and having a shootout in a play-off game. We’d look forward to it. I think Leeds are a great side, but I watched us tonight and thought if we play like we did in the first half, I think we are a tough team to defend against.

“I was pretty happy with lots of things, but we haven’t lost for a while so it’s a different feeling and hopefully we won’t feel it too many more times this year. But I never thought we were going to win every game until the end of the year so we’ll cop this one, learn from it and move on.”

Powell’s side had won their previous seven matches and reflecting on last night’s clash, he said: “I feel like there’s nothing in the game. There is a story to be told here at the end of the year - this is not it.

“I always felt this wasn’t win or bust; it was an experience and if we had won we’d have gone equal-top with Leeds and we’d have been ecstatic. But I don’t think we need to be downbeat on that performance - there’s a lot to be pretty happy about.”

Powell insisted: “I don’t think there’s too much between the teams. I thought we played really well for large periods, but there’ll be some key lessons in big games that if we carry with us and improve on those I think we can be a threat at the back end of the season.

“I said to the boys, this is not about tonight - it’s about what we are doing in September and October. I think we are getting to that point now where we are in a great position. We’ve proved against the team that’s been the best team this year that we can smack them on the nose and put them under pressure.

“We would want to be a bit better than that - 22 points has got to be enough to win that game and it wasn't, so that was disappointing, but lots of positives and some things to learn. We need to win next week so onwards and upwards.”

He stressed: “We are going to learn. You’re not going to win every game until the end of the season, I just don’t think that’s going to happen. This is a key learning experience, we could easily have won it, but we didn’t.

“We’ll learn more from what happened to us tonight. There will be some things we do different next time we are in these games and we are under pressure. We have got to have real clarity of thought and we perhaps didn’t have that and the patience to do what we wanted. If we learn those lessons we will be a lot better team because of it.”