Wakefield Trinity head coach Daryl Powell found three reasons to be happy, despite their 18-16 Boxing Day defeat at Leeds Rhinos.
Trinity hit back from 12-0 down at half-time to lead 16-12 with seven minutes remaining, but Rhinos snatched victory with a late converted try.
Powell’s side will be back at AMT Headingley in seven week’s time, when the sides meet in Betfred Super League round one. The Trinity boss – who was without several first-choice players and gave an opportunity to some younger members of the squad – reflected: “I am pretty pleased with three things: young players and getting a look at them; we got a look at ourselves and some of the things we need to perhaps work on a little bit more than we thought and we got a really good look at Leeds. It couldn’t have been any better, from all those perspectives.”
Pick of the fringe players was 20-year-old outside-back Noah Booth, who will spend the 2025 season on loan at Hunslet.
“He has come to us from Warrington and we think he is a centre,” Powell said.
“It will be interesting to see how he develops. He will play in the Championship this year, which will be great for him.
“For the team, we hung in there and found a way back into the game. It looked like we were going to slip away pretty heavily, but I thought we did pretty well to get control.
“The game is about taking opportunities and we got ourselves into a decent position before that finish.”
Wakefield Trinity didn’t create a chance until Booth’s breakaway eight minutes after half-time. Powell admitted: “I thought we started pretty poorly and Leeds were pretty good physically in the first half.
“There were a couple of reasons for that – they had their starting pack out there and we had a pretty strongish team from the start, but I don’t think we handled it well.
“The second half, I was pretty pleased. I thought the young players did well and we tidied up a bit after half-time.”
A spectacular finish by Dom Sinfield seemed to have swung the game Trinity’s way, after Booth and Seth Nikotemo, an off-season signing from Gold Coast Titans who was the visitors’ man of the match, had got them back into the contest.
But the restart after Sinfield’s try bounced away from the defence to Leeds substitute George Brown, who powered over.
“It was an interesting game and it looked like we might win it at the end, but rugby balls tend to bounce different ways,” Powell said. “It was unfortunate, but it is what it is.”
