Daryl Powell was left frustrated as his Wakefield Trinity side suffered defeat at the hands of Castleford Tigers. The result means their battle for the sixth and final playoff space has been blown wide open, with Hull FC now having a chance to overtake them this weekend.
Trinity lost 26-22 to Castleford Tigers last night, as tries from Tom Johnstone, Seth Nikotemo and two from Josh Rourke weren’t enough to best a spirited and courageous Tigers side.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Powell, who coached Castleford from 2013-2021, was disappointed with his side’s performance, especially in such a big game.
“I thought the first half was the problem really,” he said as his side trailed 14-10 at the break. “I just thought the way we tried to play the game, our kicking game was loose, we made too many errors. Castleford played well, I really thought they put us under pressure, that would be the best they’d played for most of the year I would have thought.
He added: I just thought we weren’t great at any point during the game and we got close at the end, but I don’t think we would have deserved it really. Just disappointed with the performance, obviously the outcome is hurtful to us, it could potentially still be in our hands. Tough game next week against Hull KR, I don’t think it matters who we play against, if we turn up like that I think we’ll find it difficult.”
The defeat means that should Hull FC emerge victorious in the Hull derby on Sunday afternoon, they would drop out of the playoff places, in what would be a costly consequence for the unexpected loss.
Powell was asked whether he believed his side was still in control of the playoff race. He replied with how his team simply needs to improve if they are to have any chance of keeping hold of sixth spot.
He said: “We’ve just got to play better than that. Individually I thought we were really poor tonight, which you’ve got to ask a couple of questions on why that was and why Castleford probably wanted to win that game a little bit more. That’s what it looks like. Their desperation to do things was better than ours and that’s disappointing. They fully deserved to win tonight, Castleford, which I didn’t expect our performance to be that lacking in accuracy and energy really.
“It’s disappointing, we’ve lost a game there that was a pivotal one in our season but it’s still there, I just think we’ve got to improve. We’ve been good at times this year, at the back end of the year, but I just feel like we’re going from poor performance to good performance back to poor again. We need to find the answers to that quick or it’s going to peter out by the end of the year, which will be really disappointing. I thought we’ve had a really good year and we can’t forget that, but overall today’s just one of ‘what are we doing and why have we come up with that performance?’ I thought our support base was immense today, but I think we’ve sent them home disappointed which is poor from us.
Wakefield Trinity boss opens up on positive news regarding grandson’s cancer diagnosis
Whilst Trinity won’t be happy with the result, the weekend will bring much happiness to the Powell family, after he revealed his grandson, Clarke, has been given the all-clear after battling cancer.
Wakefield’s home fixture against Leigh was dedicated to the Candlelighters UK charity, after they helped him and his family get through such a tough time.
“He had four rounds of chemo and he rings the bell tomorrow, which is being cancer free with the chemo,” Powell explained. “He’s still got a battle ahead of him, but I just want to thank everybody in rugby league who has supported us really.
“There’s some things that are bigger than any game and for us as a family, this was one of them. We got so much support, there’s so many people giving money or things that we can auction or raffle and that’s why rugby league is such an unbelievable sport when people do what they’ve done when we’ve had a really tough situation as a family so I want to thank everybody.”
