Southern calls on Lady Luck to shine on Wakefield Trinity Wildcats

The Wildcats' captain shares the belief of his head coach, Richard Agar, that Wakefield aren't too far away from hitting the right notes despite following their opening-day win at Widnes Vikings with four straight defeats.

Things get no easier for Wakefield when they travel to high-flying Warrington Wolves on Sunday and, as well as continuing to improve their performance, Southern is also hoping Lady Luck can shine on those in red, white and blue.

"We're close," he said. "It's 90 per cent skill and toughness, five per cent of something else but there's always that five per cent luck that you need in a game and we're working hard for that luck.

"It's just a couple of little things. The ball might not get to a certain place, that kind of thing. We're playing really good football. We're playing exciting football. I don't see many other teams that are playing the way we're playing at the moment. Maybe because of the conditions, but we're still chancing our aim.

"But there's also the discipline, it's not really there. The penalties and a couple of dropped balls and we're not defending our areas so that's key as well."

He continued: "You see the games that we've played and there's only Huddersfield at the weekend, the last ten minutes I think they scored two tries and blew it out a bit. I don't think we deserved that scoreline the way we played for that 70.

"I think we've played one bad half all year and that was against Bradford and we were pretty down on ourselves and it was a tough week after that."

The former Newcastle Knights and North Queensland player watched Warrington for the first time when they lost at Leeds Rhinos last Friday - their first defeat of the season.

But he's well aware of the qualities within the Wolves camp and is preparing for a tough game at the Halliwell Jones Stadium - especially with Warrington looking to bounce straight back from defeat.

"It'll show us ways to win, Leeds played pretty tough so it should be an interesting game," he said.

"That's the first time I've seen them play too because I haven't seen many games over here. They're a big, physical side and they have pretty crafty players."

Southern will lead Wakefield out for the sixth time after being appointed as club captain by Agar.

The Australian, known as 'Bluey' to his teammates, was shocked and honoured to received the armband for 2012 and, despite a sluggish start to the season for Wakefield, he's enjoying the role.

He said: "I captained half the year last year in the reserve grade [at Newcastle Knights].

"I enjoyed it last year because I was a senior player and there were a lot of young players that were really good at Newcastle in the reserve grade. I was really enjoying my time to help them out and teach them a bit.

"To come over here and be appointed captain I was really honoured and it was unexpected but I'm really enjoying it. There's a little bit more pressure but I take it on the chin."

He added: "But just because I've got the 'c' next to my name doesn't mean I have to tell everyone what to do. Our half-backs out there are doing a job, Richie Mathers at the back is unbelievable. There's Kirmo [Danny Kirmond], there's Ali [Lauitiiti], there's heaps of them."

Wildcats 19-man squad: Mathers, Fox, Collis, Mellars, Cockayne, John, Wood, Wilkes, Raleigh, Lauitiiti, Southern, Washbrook, Aiton, Amor, Johnson, Kirmond, Smith, Trout, Walshaw.

Warrington 19-man squad: Atkins, Blythe, Bridge, Briers, Cooper, Dwyer, Grix, Hill, Hodgson, McCarthy, J Monaghan, M Monaghan, Morley, Myler, Riley, Waterhouse, Westwood, Williams, Wood.

See this week's Wakefield Express Sport for all the latest Wakefield Trinity Wildcats news.