Daryl Powell ‘proud’ of Wakefield Trinity despite ‘key moments’ bursting Challenge Cup dreams against Leigh Leopards

An injury-hit Trinity came back from a 6-0 half-time deficit to lead 12-6 just nine minutes into the second half thanks to tries from Matty Russell, who broke two ribs during the first half, and Josh Rourke.

However, “key moments” cost Wakefield dear.

A dropped ball by full-back Rourke gifted a way for Leigh to level the contest at 12-12, although Trin should have regained the lead when Tom Johnstone offered support to Oliver Pratt but he did not receive the pass.

Rourke then provided a wayward pass to Russell in front of his own sticks, allowing Bailey Hodgson to seal Leigh’s place in the semi-finals.

Powell said after the 20-12 defeat:

“I thought it was an outstanding effort from the boys. We were pretty busted there. We lose a half with Oliver Russell breaking his hand, and then Matty Russell broke two ribs so he had to get jabbed up at half-time, so there was a fair bit of shuffling around in the team.

“We also lost Griff (Josh Griffin) in the morning so I am really proud of the boys and the way they are going about the work.

“I feel like Leigh started the game really well and dominated the first half. We just kept giving penalties away and that hurt us. But I thought we dominated the second half until we made that error and that flipped the game.

“We completely dominated that second half, in everything. We got to 12-6 up and dropped the ball and conceded tries straight away. In the blink of an eye there’s nothing there.”

On the errors which had an impact on the result, Powell said:

“I feel like the Hull game a couple of weeks back where we were so close to winning a tight game. There’s a couple of key moments. Pratty gets away and gives it to Tom Johnstone and not many people will catch him. I reckon it would have been tough for them to get back into the game then.

“We don’t and then there’s a couple of key errors from us which gift the game. I don’t think (Fanitesi) Niu should be able to score that try from the scrum. That’s really poor defence from us.

“And then it’s a poor pass from Rourkey at the end that gets them away from us. But there was nothing in the game.”

However, Powell was quick to defend Rourke, who has been performing well in Max Jowitt’s absence.

“We need to look after him because he has done some great things,” the head coach said. “He had been great all night. This happens. He is still a pretty young player so we just need to look after him.

“All players make mistakes. It’s like a goalkeeper in football. It gets magnified more when you make an error in rugby league.”

He added: “But even though we made that first error we still should have defended that better. That is a development for us. We concede too early after an error. We have done it a few times this year. That is something we want to improve.

“Even with so many players missing we are still a fair challenge for teams. We are disappointed because we want to be in the Challenge Cup but there are some more key lessons for us.

“It proved again that we are not going to be beaten easily.”