Wakefield Trinity set unwanted new Super League record after second half display against Leigh branded 'unacceptable'

Trinity were nilled for the fifth time this season to set an unwanted new record in the Super League era and their 32-0 defeat to opponents playing in the Championship last year was the ninth from nine matches in 2023.

There was little for the Trinity boss to enthuse over in a performance that saw the players set out with enthusiasm only to lose confidence once the Leopards went ahead.

Wakefield were still in the game at the break, as they have been in most of their matches this season, but the second half display was labelled “unacceptable” by Applegarth.

He said: “That second half especially was a low point, our first half barring those two tries we were looking okay and looking really good.

“Then we’ve done the complete opposite of what we said we would do at half-time. Credit to Leigh on that, they’ve seen the vulnerability and put their foot on the throttle and exploited it.

“There was some individual quality that wasn’t up to the standard this week especially in the second-half, and some weren’t acceptable. I can’t keep on saying the same week after week.

“The reality is, we’ve got to fix it up, its just unacceptable as we saw in that second half.

“There’s no hiding away from it, I’m saying at the pivots you’ve got to go into the teeth of the line, it’s okay playing lateral but you’ve got to preserve that space, make the decision and play straight and fix the defenders up. They are the basics of the game.

“There are one or two of us not doing it in them areas. There are a few catching the ball static, you aren’t going to do anything doing that.

“It’s okay doing it in training but we need to learn how to do it on matchday and that’s got to come down to application in the end.”

Trinity started the game well enough with some good early goal-line defence keeping the visitors out then they exerted some pressure of their own.

They were unable to turn it into points with Leigh showing their own determination not to concede, but after 15 minutes of back and forth it was the visitors who broke the deadlock with Gareth O’Brien taking Josh Charnley’s pass to go over for the first try.

Five minutes later Ben Reynolds converted his own try and the Leopards held a 10-0 lead at half-time.

The first score after the break was always going to be huge and Trinity went close as Matty Ashurst made a break, but the supporting Mason Lino was tackled just short of the line.

Leigh were more clinical when Lachlan Lam finished off Charnley’s break to score and Reynolds converted.

When Charnley then crossed in the corner and Reynolds goaled again it was suddenly 22-0 and Wakefield had a mountain to climb.

They never looked likely to achieve it with Charnley and Joe Mellor going over to stretch Leigh’s lead further before the final hooter.