It was a tough night for young Wakefield Trinity fullback Josh Rourke but his coach Daryl Powell offered him support following the Challenge Cup defeat to Leigh Leopards.
With starting fullback Max Jowitt out of action for the next four months following knee surgery, Rourke is stepping into his shoes.
Jowitt himself had been one of Wakefield’s star performers in 2025 so far and despite a solid performance, two of Rourke’s errors led to Leigh tries, first from a dropped ball after a Leopards kick and then passing the ball to winger Matty Russell in front of his own posts.
His coach wanted to reassure the youngster that he would look out for him as he gets more game time under his belt.
Speaking post-match to the media, Powell said:Â “I just think it was a poor decision, passing to Matty Russell, he’s got two broken ribs anyway so probably shouldn’t be giving him that sort of hospital ball there.
“We need to look after him (Rourke) because he’s done some great thing, his high ball stuff is phenomenal and he scores tries.
“He’d been great all night. Look, this happens, he’s still a pretty young player so we just need to look after him.
“All players make mistakes. Like a goalkeeper in football, it gets magnified more when you make an error in rugby league.
“Even though he made that first error, we still should’ve defended that better.”
Whilst the 25-year-old might’ve made two costly errors, the Wakefield Trinity boss bemoaned his entire side’s composure, especially when they dropped the ball.
He added: “I think that’s a development for us, I think we concede too early after an error, we’ve done it a few times this year so that’s something we want to improve.”
Powell and his Wakefield Trinity side can’t dwell on their Challenge Cup exit for too long as they next face a trip to St Helens on Friday night in Super League.
He finished: “Overall, I’m disappointed but I think we’re in a great place. we just have to learn key lessons from this game and then move on.
“We’ve got Saints next week so you can’t start feeling sorry for yourselves. We’ve just got to unravel it next week and then we move on.”
