Daryl Powell praises ‘phenomenal’ Wakefield Trinity stars as Super League return ends in terrific triumph at Leeds Rhinos

Two tries from Max Jowitt and one from Mason Lino in a blistering ten-minute first half burst gave Wakefield a 14-0 lead before Harry Newman cut the deficit to 14-6 at the break.

And a resolute defensive effort kept Leeds at bay, even when they went down to 12 men after Lino was sent to the sin bin in the 63rd minute.

A Sam Lisone try was too little, too late, as Trin held on for a famous win.

“I thought we did some special things today,” Powell said after the game. “We all facilitate the players to do what they do and you have different groups of players throughout your career and these are just a phenomenal group.

“They are really good blokes who want to do something special. I thought they were great today. There were so many good character traits in the team today.

“I thought we executed really well in the first half. I thought our spine was impeccable in that first half.

“We played them on Boxing Day and got a few little tips from that and that if we executed well we’d be able to open them up a little bit. That was the story of it.

“I thought our decision making from both halves was very good and our spine in the first half was phenomenal. They completely dominated the game.”

He added: “I thought we were unlucky not to be further ahead at half-time. We had a couple of rushes of blood towards the end of the first half.

“We gifted Leeds an opportunity to come back at us and started the second half really poorly. We had to dig pretty deep then to find our way to the winning enclosure at the end.”

On the defensive effort, especially late on in the second half, Powell said:

“Some of the things we did to stop tries were outstanding and putting our bodies in places that are pretty uncomfortable. The level of commitment from everyone was outstanding.

“And some big, big plays defensively. I thought we had all the answers defensively. I don’t think they really opened us up with anything play-wise. I thought our execution on the edges defensively was good.”

Jake Trueman was at the heart of everything good attacking-wise about Trin. On the new addition’s performance, Powell said:

“He does things that you don’t see from many other players. You watch him in training and he’s got so much time. Our players struggle to shut him down because he’s got a tempo and an eye for space and movement that you rarely see in players.

“He is a high quality player and he has matured a little bit. He has worked so hard this pre-season.”

Wakefield are next in action on Thursday evening when they host Hull KR in their first home league game of the season.