Daryl Powell fumes at refereeing display after Wakefield Trinity fall to Toulouse Olympique

Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell was left frustrated with the refereeing performance in last night’s defeat to Toulouse Olympique, and labelled a key decision in the game as “nonsense.”

Trinity were the second team this weekend to succumb to defeat by a newly-promoted side, as Sylvain Houles’ side earned a 18-16 victory over last year’s play-off competitors.

The winning margin could have been a lot more, had three of Cesar Rouge’s conversion attempt not his the posts, but the French outfit more than earned their two points, in what was a disappointing showing from Wakefield.

Powell understands that his team were off it, but what he was left confused by was the refereeing display by James Vella, and how the interpretation of the ruck ruined the game.

Speaking post-match, an angered Powell took questions from the media, and started by giving credit to their travelling opponents.

He said: “I just thought we got beat at everything to be honest. I thought they played really well, Toulouse.

“That was a really strong performance…  I think if you go into games mentally not quite where you need to be, and it looked like we weren’t tonight, then you get beat, whoever you’re playing against.

“I thought we were poor from minute one tonight to be honest. Passing was sloppy. Defensively, I just thought they punched forward pretty easily and I don’t think we managed that well.

“I thought we got a little bit better in the second half but you shouldn’t need a half time to fix that. It was really disappointing.

“The boys all held their hands up and said that’s not where we want to be. Toulouse deserved to win. We’ve got a lot of work to do and quick I would say.”

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“Nonsense” – Wakefield Trinity boss slams controversial referee call

The ruck speed, and how it’s refereed has been a key talking point that has come out of most games in round one, and it was again a hot topic here.

James Vella took charge of the contest, but Powell was far from pleased with his showing, arguing that his interpretation of the rucks were incredibly different from the rest of the games in round one.

On the uncertainty over the rucks, he explained: “It’s Rugby League but not as I know it really. There has to be some consistency.

“We had a referee come and talk to us and he was saying they’ve almost got licence it looks like to do it differently. That can’t be right, can it? There has to be some kind of control there of what we’re doing. Otherwise, what do we do? What is the game? I think it’s very difficult.

“Every game you watch is different, so I’d say there’s a job to get control of that to make sure there’s some kind of consistency. Otherwise, good luck with it. I think there’s a bit of trepidation around of how long this lasts for.

“…That’s not why we lost tonight. We just got beat for everything tonight.

“I’m not going to go at anybody. I’ll speak to Phil [Bentham, head of referees] about tonight because I don’t think that’s good enough. I don’t think we were good enough. I don’t think the whole thing was good enough. I’ll have a couple of conversations and see where we go.”

A controversial decision that hampered Wakefield further was the shoulder charge from Max Jowitt on Benjamin Laguerre.

The tackle was originally deemed fine by Vella, but Toulouse used their captain’s challenge, and after a replay, video referee Tom Grant overturned the call to give the penalty – despite what looked like an attempt to wrap the arm from the Wakefield full-back.

The away side opted to kick at goal, which then levelled up the game at 10-10 with 15 minutes to go.

Giving his thoughts on that call, Powell said: “Nonsense. It’s nonsense.

“What was he supposed to do there? You can’t tickle him over the sideline. There’s all sorts like that so I’ll ask the questions and see what I get.”