Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell couldn’t be happier with his side this afternoon, after the club defeated Bradford Bulls 52-12.
Tom Johnstone grabbed four tries, whilst opposite winger Oli Pratt crossed for three of his own.
Trinity now sit level with St Helens and Leeds Rhinos at the top of Super League, as they extend their winning run in Super League to five matches.
Ahead of the game, eyebrows were raised when the line-ups dropped and changes were made by Powell, with two members of the spine dropping out from last week’s side that were beaten by Wigan.
Max Jowitt and Mason Lino both missed this week’s game, with Josh Rourke and Jack Sinfield coming in their place respectively.
Speaking post-match, Powell was asked why that was. He explained: “[They were] both sort of niggly injuries.
“I intended to bring Jack back into the team anyway. Mason was going to play on the bench but pulled out with a knee injury.
“The balance of getting our halves right and I don’t think I’m going to leave any of them out for too long, if I’m honest.
One player who kept his place in the spine from last week was Jake Trueman, who was again in top form as he set up a number of tries this afternoon.
The Trinity boss was asked again whether Trueman could make that World Cup squad at the end of the year, and he replied: “We spoke about a goal, setting out what you want to achieve and I think for ‘Truey’, he definitely wants to play at that level.
“I think he’s playing at an elite level every week at the moment. He’s strong, he’s carrying the ball a lot, his kicking game is great, his execution of passes is as good as anybody else in the comp.
“I’m really pleased with what he’s doing at the moment. We don’t know who the England coach is, when we find out I’m pretty sure they’ll be keeping tabs on him because for me, he’s one of the best halves in the comp.
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Wakefield Trinity boss “aware” of goal-kicking stat
One thing that could perhaps be improved in Wakefield’s performance today was their goal kicking.
Sinfield was on kicking duties this afternoon, but only managed to slot over six goals from 10.
In his defence, the ones he missed were from the touchline, but his efforts today mean that Trinity now have a Super League conversion rate of 50%.
Wakefield have only kicked 21 out of 42 goals this season, something that Powell addressed post-match.
He said: “I’m aware [of the stat]. There’s a couple of things on that.
“I’m aware of our kicking percentage, but the team is scoring at different points on the field.
“We scored pretty wide and today was tough. You’d want to get that up, and it would be interesting to see what the actual overall stats.
“I’m aware of our kicking percentage, but I reckon you can look into that with a little more detail and maybe get a slightly different answer. But, I do think we need to improve in that area, absolutely.
