Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell has called for his players to get ‘down and dirty’ at the ruck following his side’s loss at St Helens on Friday night.
Trinity had a spirited fight back in the second half, scoring three back-t0-back tries but it was too little, too late, eventually losing 26-14.
Wakefield boss Powell was pleased with his team’s second-half performance but admitted that they need to work out a way to battle harder.
Speaking to the media post-match, he said: “I thought as a team, we were much better in the second half, we competed much harder.
We’re going to have to get a little bit down and dirty at the ruck to be honest because I think some of the ruck speed is frighteningly bad.
Some of the dark arts that are going on are pretty tough to take but I’m not holding my breath with that.”
Powell noted how disappointed he was after their first-half display and asked his players to win the second half, following a pretty frank half-time team talk.
He added: “At half-time, I was probably as aggressive as I’ve ever been in delivery for a fair while, just around belief really.
“I thought we started to play, it was a really good battle at the start of the second half and then we’re in the game.
“I just thought we were much more durable in the second half and we found a way back into the game.”
He was particularly critical of St Helens first try, which was conceded after a short goal-line drop-out.
Whilst he’s happy for his side to use that tactic, he was less than impressed with them batting the ball back for the opposition to run onto.
The Wakefield Trinity coach said: “We’re masters of giving tries away at the minute. We needed to start well tonight and that is not a good start.
“Then we’re 10-0 down in no time, that’s pretty tough when you do that to yourselves.
“It took us a real while to get anything and then we got into good attacking positions and put two balls down.
“It’s rugby league suicide, to be honest, and it took us a while to get out of that mode.”
With Jay Pitts deputising in the halves alongside Mason Lino, Powell said that he’s not going to be looking into the transfer market and had some good news to share with fans.
He finished: “Jake Trueman’s got a back problem that’s ongoing and Oliver Russell broke his hand last week. I’m hoping Truey isn’t going to be too far away.
“Obviously, we’re missing Max (Jowitt) at fullback as well so we’re missing a little bit of strike there. (Josh) Rourke’s done a decent job, he’s just a different player to Max.”
