Wakefield Trinity boss slams ‘appalling effort’ as injuries mount and St Helens run riot

Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell has hit out at his players for their effort levels in the heavy loss to St Helens.

Just over a week ago, Wakefield were three minutes away from moving level on points with Leeds Rhinos atop the table. After today’s surprise 46-16 loss to St Helens, they’re now sat in fourth and on the brink of dropping out of that top four should Hull KR beat Warrington Wolves on Tuesday night.

It’s been quite a shift in league position but also in performance. Despite losing week against Leeds, Wakefield were brilliant for much of the match but today was in stark contrast, with the second half in particular well off the pace for what Trinity would expect.

Giving his verdict post-match on Sky Sports, Powell was clear in his verdict on where he thought it went wrong, declaring: “I just thought our effort was appalling today.

“I thought we did alright until half-time but I still thought it was a fractured performance that sort of went on the back of the second half for last week a little bit.”

He admitted that it’s not the sort of performance that can be easily forgotten, especially when heading away to face Wigan next week.

Powell said: “We’ve got a bit of work to do to turn us around. It’s easy to flip the way a team’s feeling and we won’t be feeling too great about ourselves at the moment.

“The way we ended that game as well is not us, so, yeah, we got a bit of work to do there. We get a chance against Wigan next week and you can’t turn that up.

“I just thought that it was so un-us and the way that we’ve built ourselves to be, so, yeah, I was really disappointed in that.”

The Wheels Have Fallen Off At Castleford! Huddersfield Giants Leaving Town In £10M Stadium Move?! – Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show!

Wakefield Trinity injuries not an excuse for unacceptable collapse

As for what he felt most appalling and disappointing, Powell pointed to the late flurry of tries with Tristan Sailor completing his hat-trick and Jake Davies bagging a brace inside the final five minutes, largely untouched by would-be tacklers.

Powell responded: “The tries at the end. You can lose a game but you don’t lose it like that. I think that’s what I’ll be most disappointed about.

“I thought St Helens played with a lot of spirit today, but I just thought we gave away way too much there at the end, and that’s never a good sign.”

Powell admitted that his side could well have reasons in that they were without Tom Johnstone (knee), who got injured in captain’s run, whilst they lost Josh Rourke (knee) and Isaiah Vagana (shoulder) inside the first 15 minutes, though he was clear that was not an excuse.

“We got rattled at the start, we lose a full-back, we lose a back-rower, but they’ve got people missing all over the place, so there’s no excuses there,” he explained.

“We’ve just got to flip it on its head as quick as we can and move on into next week but we’ll have some decent words about that one, I reckon.”

Speaking more on the fact they folded late on, Powell said: “We conceded some tries that a desperate team probably doesn’t concede, I’d say that, but I wouldn’t say we waved the white flag.

“They won’t be great viewing those tries that we’ve conceded at the end but we’ve just got to cop it, we’ve got to cop it and learn from it.

“You can’t do that against the best teams or you get your backside spanked.”

Powell also was unable to provide a positive injury update, adding: “Isaiah don’t look too good, Josh Rourke I’m not sure he got a knee there, but Isaiah don’t look too good.

“We lost Tom yesterday, but it pales into insignificance to Saints’ problems, so not going to worry about that so much.”

The @Saints1890 stay alive in the Play-Off race 👀 #SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/nxTFRvXrZn

— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) August 15, 2026