Why Daryl Powell is refusing to overreact to Wakefield Trinity's toughest lesson yet
There are times when all a coach can do is hold his hands up and accept his team were beaten by the better side.
Friday's 48-10 defeat to Wigan Warriors fell firmly into that category for Daryl Powell. A night billed as a chance for Wakefield Trinity to prove beyond doubt that they are the real deal became an exercise in damage limitation.
For all the positive strides made in the 18 months since their return to the top level, this was a reminder of how far there is still to travel. The challenge facing Wakefield has never been producing one-off results; it is reproducing them consistently against the cream of Super League.
On this evidence, they must still find another level if they are to trouble the big hitters when it matters most. Trinity can at least take solace from the fact that few teams would have coped with the Warriors at their clinical best.
"I just thought Wigan were awesome from start to finish," said Powell. "It was too slow from us, a really poor performance. That's all I've got to say. We've got to learn some lessons and move on."
Wigan were written off in some quarters after four straight Super League defeats earlier in the campaign but they are the team to beat again on this form.
Young winger Noah Hodkinson led the way with four tries as the Challenge Cup winners racked up 40 points for a third straight game, a run that began at Wembley.
Asked why it slipped away from Trinity, Powell added: "I thought it was all Wigan.
"They completely dominated the game. They've been playing that way for a weeks now and just continued in that vein of form. We got beat in every facet of the game.
"Everything I've got to say, I'll say to the players during the week. I'm not going to make anything public. We've just got to learn some pretty harsh lessons from what Wigan did to us. They were phenomenal."
While there was no disputing that Wakefield were second best by some distance, context is important.
Enforced changes robbed Trinity of some of the fluency and cohesion that had been evident a week earlier in the dramatic win over Hull KR.
Unfortunately for Wakefield, a rejigged side could hardly have faced a sterner test than a Wigan team operating near the peak of their powers.
Powell had four new faces in his backline in the absence of Josh Rourke, Oli Pratt, Corey Hall and Mason Lino – and it showed against the red-hot Warriors.
To compound those injury issues, Trinity lost Jayden Myers to a shoulder issue at half-time.
"It just happens like that where you get injuries in one particular position," said Powell.
"We lost five players last week (including Jazz Tevaga to a one-match ban), which is a bit of a challenge.
"It's always going to be difficult. A couple of boys who came into the team played their first game for four, five, six weeks and going into that level of performance is interesting – but they'll be better for it."
What matters now is how Trinity respond. They stayed in the fight for much of the first half, only to concede three tries in eight minutes in the closing stages.
Liam Farrell opened the scoring at the end of a slick last-tackle powerplay down the right but most of the damage was done by Wigan's left edge, just as Powell feared.
The Trinity boss went as far as saying they were "on fire" pre-match and his side certainly felt the heat.
Hodkinson had already lost the ball short of the line when he scored his first try just before the half-hour mark on the back of a rampaging run by Junior Nsemba.
That opened the floodgates. Oliver Partington went himself from dummy-half after Harry Smith's kick had left Trinity in scramble mode and it got worse for the hosts following a move to the right and back again that was finished by Hodkinson.
Matty Storton's strong response to Farrell's opener was a distant memory by half-time.
Hodkinson completed his hat-trick after the interval and the nightmare continued when Bevan French was introduced.
Tries for Jake Wardle and Zach Eckersley sandwiched Hodkinson's fourth before Tom Johnstone scored a consolation for Wakefield on his 150th appearance. The night ended how it started with Farrell going over – a final act that had French's fingerprints all over it. Ominously for their rivals, French and Wigan are well and truly back.
"Teams are struggling with them at the moment," said Powell. "It was a disappointing night for us but it's a long season and it ebbs and flows. I don't think a knee-jerk reaction is needed. We've generally been pretty good but we got served up in this game. We'll find out why that happened and see if we can fix it up."