Wakefield Trinity boss: We've got to learn lessons from Catalans golden point defeat

Wakefield Trinity's Oliver Pratt is tackled by Matthieu Laguerre and Elliott Whitehead. Picture by Rémi Vignaud/Catalans Dragons/SWpix.complaceholder image
Wakefield Trinity's Oliver Pratt is tackled by Matthieu Laguerre and Elliott Whitehead. Picture by Rémi Vignaud/Catalans Dragons/SWpix.com
Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell admitted Catalans Dragons wore his side down before clinching victory in a dramatic finish.

Trinity led 18-8 at half-time and looked set for a big victory, but their hosts fought back after the break and won it with a golden point try when Powell’s men were down to 12 men with Mason Lino sin-binned for a high shot.

“I’m really proud of the boys and the effort," said head coach Powell. “We’ve got to learn lessons from it but we’re a pretty courageous team. Plenty come here and cave in but we’re not one of them, which is pretty pleasing.

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“I thought we were great in the first half and pretty poor in the second.

“Catalans put their foot down after the break and I expected them to come out and fight like they did. We needed to regain control of the game and we couldn’t do it.

“We gave penalties away and eventually Catalans just weigh you down with their size.

“It’s disappointing but we’ve got a fair team here, we compete every single week and we’ve gone close.

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“There’s an argument to say we could have won that game, we get to Golden Point and go down to 12 men and that makes it so tough.

“It was a poor decision by Mason, but he knows that. We don’t need to tell him and then you’re always going to have poor kick-pressure and they were pretty smart how they took the opportunity.”

Trinity opened the scoring in the first half when Max Jowitt took Josh Griffin’s offload to finish smartly.

Caleb Hamlin-Uele then went on a powerful burst and found Liam Hood who dived over under the sticks. With Jowitt kicking his second conversion the visitors were 12-0 up on 25 minutes.

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Catalans hit back when Ben Garcia found a gap and charged over.

Both teams were then reduced to 12 men after high tackles saw the Dragons’ Luke Keary and Trinity’s Isaiah Vagana sent to the sin-bin.

But Wakefield came up with a superb try as Caius Faatili started a move that saw Mason Lino’s brilliant offload from the back of his hand collected by Renouf Atoni who sent Griffin over.

The next try was always going to be a key one and it went to the Dragons as Chris Satae cleverly finished. Matthieu Laguerre came close to another home score when diving over in the corner only to put a foot in touch.

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But with nine minutes remaining Nick Cotric went over in the corner and Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet's touchline goal gave Catalans the lead for the first time.

Wakefield were not done, however, as a penalty for offside gave Jowitt the chance to kick a goal that made it 20-20.

Lino had a chance to snatch victory, but was unable to repeat his drop-goal heroics from the derby game with Castleford the week before with his effort off target.

Within a minute of the start of extra-time Lino’s mixed game continued as he was then yellow carded for a high shot on Aispuro-Bichet. And with their extra man the Dragons sealed victory when Reimis Smith burst through to score a try.

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