Wakefield Trinity: Kirmond's frustrated by '˜sixty-minute displays'

Last Friday’s 24-16 reverse at Huddersfield Giants was their second in as many Betfred Super League games this year and Trinity have not won since last July.

They visit St Helens in three days’ time and Kirmond admitted: “Everyone says it’s a tough competition and every team is a tough game, but I think this year it is probably more even and tougher than it has been in a long time.

“I think every team’s really strengthened and all the games have been close over the first couple of weeks. We know we’ve got a big test on our hands against Saints. They lost on Friday and they’ll want to bounce back from that, but it’s important we start turning these 60-minute performances into some points now.”

Kirmond admitted the defeat at Huddersfield was “frustrating”. Trinity led 16-8 at half-time and he said: “We started the game really poorly and gave them an eight-point start, though to be fair they started well and they have been doing that over the past couple of weeks. They’ve got some big middle guys who will test you early on and we didn’t quite deal with that.

“We did really well to get back into it and going into half-time I felt quite comfortable, but the second half was really disappointing. We gave ourselves a chance and then shot ourselves in the foot with errors and penalties as well. When they’ve got a kicker like Broughy [Danny Brough] in their team you can’t afford to give them penalties in yardage because he’s not kicking it 20 metres, he’s marching you 50-60 metres down the field all the time.

“We really helped them back in the game and they took their chances.

“At the end we threw everything at them, but they managed to see it out.

“It’s disappointing and I am a bit angry at my own performance as well, not having the best individual performance.”

Despite the defeat, Trinity will remember last week’s game for a wonder try by Ben Jones-Bishop, who weaved clear from close to his own line.

“You’ve got to give him a lot of credit,” Kirmond said.

“He was outstanding all off-season and played well in the friendlies and he’s been good in the first two weeks.

“He has done a lot of work and it was disappointing to see him go off with quite a bad cut to his face and a head knock as well.”

Of that incident, Kirmond said: “I think it was put on report.

“We didn’t get a penalty, it isn’t too good for us when it just gets put on report, but it’s a difficult job for referees and I thought the ref’ had quite a good game.”