Daryl Powell was left thinking what might have been after Wakefield Trinity's agonising 22-18 defeat at Leeds Rhinos

It was a tale of two halves at Headingley with the Rhinos establishing a 22-6 half-time lead before Trinity produced a brave fightback courtesy of two Max Jowitt converted tries.

But, ultimately, it wasn’t enough to secure a fourth successive win which would have leap-frogged Leeds into fifth place in the Super League table.

As it turned out, the Rhinos continued their own eye-catching form - it is now six wins from seven - and climbed up to third.

“I thought we were pretty poor in the first half,” admitted Powell after the game. “I thought Leeds came with a fair bit of intent about them and I don’t think we matched that.

“We conceded a sloppy try. We then get into a good attacking position and put the ball down. That was the story really. They are pretty hot, Leeds, and almost playing touch and pass.

“It wasn’t like the team I know we are and we did some real simple things in the second half that got us a bit of ascendancy. I thought we were far the better team in the second half but we couldn’t quite get over the line.”

He added: ““I thought Leeds were clinging on in the end and they will feel like they have been in a game. We could have easily won that game.

“In the end two penalties decide the game and that’s the way it is sometimes. The first half decided the game.

“I am pretty proud of the courage that we showed. We had a couple of opportunities at the end but were a little bit scratchy and couldn’t quite execute.”

Despite defeat Powell remained positive about his side’s current form ahead of a weekend off for the Challenge Cup final.

He said: “The team is doing a great job at the minute. The boys have been class. The second half shows what we are about. We are not going away. You can see that.

“I think we are in a great place and we are super competitive every week. We know we need to improve and I am confident we will.

“We have got some really tough games coming up but I think we will learn a lot from the game to be honest.

“We are looking forward to a breather for the boys next weekend and then we crack on. We aren’t really deep at the moment and are picking from the same block of players and it’s putting stress on quite a few boys but we get a week off this week so we will freshen up a bit.”

Take a look through these photos (taken by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com) from yesterday’s MND awareness fixture, where Leeds Rhinos legend Rob Burrow was remembered just before the first anniversary of his sad passing.