Daryl Powell says Wakefield Trinity are ‘capable of doing special things’ after a 19-8 victory over Leigh Leopards sealed their best-ever Super League finish.
A dominant first-half performance proved decisive at the Leigh Sports Village as Wakefield locked in a home play-off tie for next week’s quickfire rematch against Adrian Lam’s men.
The fourth-place finish surpasses Wakefield’s previous Super League benchmark, a fifth-place finish in 2009 under the late John Kear.
Powell paid tribute to the former Trinity boss following the landmark win.
“John passed away this year, and I’d like to attribute all this year to John, [he was] a phenomenal coach,” Powell said.
“I thought the boys did us all proud today, got put under a lot of pressure in different ways,
“I thought our first half was pretty much impeccable, and then the second half we got reeled in a little bit, got a sin bin which had an impact on the game, but we were pretty tough and courageous after that.”
Despite a second-half fightback from Leigh while Wakefield were reduced to 12 men, Powell praised his side’s grit in holding out during a frantic finish.
“Defensively, the first half was as good as we’ve been all year,
“I thought we were so good in our tackling and how hard we hit,” Powell explained.
“And then at the end it was just courage really. Down to 12 is always tough, especially when they’ve got somebody like Armstrong who’s as quick as he is and they get points on us. It looked a little bit tough at 13-8… so the courage there at the end to win a game when we were under pressure was probably the most pleasing thing.”
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Wakefield entered the season’s final stretch following a difficult run of tight losses against Wigan Warriors, Leeds Rhinos, and St Helens—a patch that led some to write off their silverware chances.
However, Powell insists those setbacks provided the exact steel required for knockout rugby.
“We’ve had some great lessons,” Powell stated. “I said all along we would have [lessons] in that tough period, and I feel like we’ve carried those with us,
|We’ve learnt from them, and I feel like we’re a better team because of the tough period that we’ve had at the end of the season,
“If we can carry all those lessons with us, whoever we play really, I feel like we can win. There are some tough games ahead… and it’s a great opportunity for us.”
“Are we good enough? Well, we’ve got to show that we are. It’ll be tough, but I feel like we’re capable of doing special things.”
Attention now turns immediately to next week’s elimination showdown back at Bellevue, with last season’s play-off defeat to Leigh still fresh in the memory.
“Next week’s a different matter, so we’ve got to dust ourselves down, learn a bit from this game, and get ready,” Powell added. “It’s all about next week now, it’s about the play-offs.”
“Leigh beat us last year, and we were still stinging from that at the start of pre-season, and we’ll carry that with us as well.”
Dissecting Leeds Rhinos v Wigan Warriors, St Helens miss the six and Wakefield make statement – Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show
jack
September 12, 2026 at 12:29 am
Next week will be the moment of truth.Tonight’s game was really academic as far as Leigh were concerned whether we win or not. Leigh were poor tonight, but next week will prove a different approach from Leigh, and will Wakey be able to handle the difference? Let’s see.