Wakefield Trinity head coach Daryl Powell has conceded that his side have given Leigh Leopards “extra motivation” for next week’s Challenge Cup clash after defeating Adrian Lam’s side 40-14 on the road in Super League.
It was a dominant win from Wakefield who started fast and finished faster with a brief ten-minute period in the first half between fifteen and twenty-five minutes being the only time they didn’t look to be in the driving seat.
Wakefield conceded two tries during that time but they scored seven of their own on a night when they hit the 40-point mark in Super League for the first time this season, and deservingly so.
Both of their high-profile off-season recruits scored braces with Mike McMeeken scoring two in the first 40 and Tom Johnstone then bagging two intercept tries in the second forty.
Daryl Powell spoke post-match on Sky Sports to pick out his highlights with the team’s fast start among those, as well as their resilience not to fold when Leigh hit back.
“I thought we were outstanding” – Daryl Powell hails Wakefield win
FULL TIME: Leigh Leopards 14-40 Wakefield Trinity
The perfect form away from home continues with a big win at the Leigh Sports Village!!#UpTheTrin pic.twitter.com/L6KxSBi29c
— Wakefield Trinity (@WTrinityRL) March 28, 2025
Asked for his verdict, Powell said: “Yeah really good, I thought we’d been starting games really well and we got out of the blocks again tonight and then they really reeled us in a little bit so we had to hold our nerve.
“It was quite a tight game for long periods, there wasn’t much in it but you know we got we got a couple of bounces of the ball, a couple of decisions that probably have gone against us in the past, particularly last week.”
Hull FC edged Trinity last week in Wakefield but Powell’s side seem to have no problem with winning on the road having now beaten Leeds, Warrington and Leigh, as well as Huddersfield in the Challenge Cup.
“I thought we were outstanding,” Powell admitted.
“I thought we just kept turning up for each other. We picked off some loose passes as a result of us defending really positive so it’s a really pleasing performance.
“It’s an excellent win for us, but don’t get too carried away as we’ve just handed a bit of motivation to Leigh for next week in the Challenge Cup.”
Wakefield will host that game next week against Leigh but they’ll have to do something they’ve not done yet this season and that is to win at home if they’re to make it to the semi-finals.
“We’ll stay under the radar” – Wakefield Trinity boss on expectations after hammering Leigh Leopards ahead of Challenge Cup tie
On how he plans to set about that, Powell stated: “We’ll learn from tonight like we have done every week and then look to improve again.
“We’re in the fight every week and players are getting experience and we feel like we’ve got a pretty strong way of playing, our culture is really solid. We’ll just keep going, we’re not going to win every game, but I think we’re in every fight.”
It was a win that has further sparked questions of just what can Wakefield Trinity achieve this season with the contrasts to Leigh Leopards already being made, having been promoted from the Championship and then faring far better than many expected.
Of course Leigh won the Challenge Cup that year and when Powell was asked what his side can do this year, he played his cards close to his chest.
“Well we get asked this all the time and I don’t know,” he admitted.
“I mean we’ve got a game next week in the quarter final of the Challenge Cup so we’ll take that as it comes and then we just want to stay consistent really.
“We could have easily won that game last week, we could have won the game against Hull KR but who knows. I think we just keep ticking on and we don’t say too much outside of our place, we just keep cracking on and we’ll see where we are at the end of the year but we’re confident what we’ve got in the squad and that we can really challenge and put teams under pressure and then we’ll see where that takes us.
“There’s no big jumping up and down saying we’re going to do all this I think we’ll we’ll stay under the radar. We’ll keep working hard and let everybody else talk about that.”
