Why rivals Wakefield Trinity and Castleford Tigers want same thing in Magic Weekend showdown

Trinity needed a last-gasp interception try to beat Betfred Super League’s bottom club Huddersfield Giants last week while Tigers suffered a surprise home defeat by lowly York Knights. Those results left Wakefield’s Daryl Powell and Ryan Carr of Tigers united in seeking more “consistency” from their side.

Powell felt there was nothing wrong with Trinity’s systems last week, but insisted his men need to “tidy up a couple of bits and play well across the park” in the Sky Sports-televised clash at Everton FC’s Hill Dickinson Stadium, which will be refereed by Aaron Moore. “We need to be a little bit more consistent, I think,” he said.

“But look at Wigan last weekend, they have been flying and they nearly got reeled in [by Hull FC]. It is everywhere in the comp, if you are not quite where you need to be there’s a chance you’re going to get beat.

“Sometimes you play a team you think you are going to beat - and everyone thinks you are going to beat - and that’s a dangerous thing. For me, mentality and consistency is probably the most important thing.”

Carr attributed Tigers’ loss last week’s to “poor management of the game, not lack of effort” and said that has been dealt with at training. His side could be boosted by the return of up to four first-choice players from injury and he stated: “I thought our attitude was all right and our attitude was good in a lot of areas.

“It was more about not doing the fundamentals of the game really well. That’s not really a team thing, sometimes that’s an individual thing. We have addressed that and we’ll move forward.

“Consistency is the key, the best teams in any competition or any sport do things really well always, not sometimes - not one week, but not the next. That’s something we are learning hard lessons of, but hopefully we will come out the other side better for it.”

With a Magic Weekend record attendance expected on Sunday afternoon, both coaches have stressed the need to play the game, not the occasion. Carr, whose star centre Krystian Mapapalangi is in impressive form this season, insisted: “Our stadium is great to play at, too. when it’s full of Cas fans. I just want to make sure we get our attitude right and get our performance right. That all our focus is on this week.”

Powell vowed Trinity, who welcome back forward Caium Faatili after he was rested last week, don’t need the prospect of a huge crowd to lift them. “If this kind of game doesn’t get your juices flowing, you need your pulse checking,” he said. “It is a big game anyway, based on the local rivalry and there’s two competition points on offer which is the huge thing for us.

“We are just focusing on playing well. It is ‘a’ game, if you start building it up too much that’s where you start tipping over the top with your motivation. I don’t think we need to do anything extra, the game speaks for itself really.”