Wakefield Trinity: Finn buoyed by Trinity's second-half turnaround

THE SECOND half of last week's win over Leigh Centurions could be a turning point in Wakefield Trinity's season, Liam Finn reckons.
Wakefield's Liam Finn is tackled by Leigh's Harrison Hanson and James Green. PIC: Jonathan GawthorpeWakefield's Liam Finn is tackled by Leigh's Harrison Hanson and James Green. PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe
Wakefield's Liam Finn is tackled by Leigh's Harrison Hanson and James Green. PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe

Trinity saw a 12-6 lead turned into a 24-12 interval deficit, but then dominated the second half to score 16 unanswered points.

The clean sheet after the break was a strong response to the previous week’s defeat at Leeds Rhinos and a poor opening 40 minutes, and Finn feels if they can reproduce that form on a regular basis they will be on course for a top-eight finish.

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“The second half was a big positive for us,” said the former Featherstone Rovers and Castleford Tigers man. “To be 12 points down against a team that’s playing really well and looking for their first away win, and to show that sort of attitude and play the way we did in the second half – and to stick to it – was really positive and hopefully we can take that forward.”

Liam FinnLiam Finn
Liam Finn

Wildcats are up to eighth in the table and visit ninth-placed Catalans Dragons on Saturday in another four-pointer.

“We want to build on last week’s performance as much as we can,” Finn said. “We have to get the mentality right in our group, stick to what we’re good at and do that as often as we can.”

The fightback looked unlikely after Leigh Centurians had scored three tries in nine minutes to take a firm grip on the game, and Finn admitted they will need to start better against Catalans’ big pack this weekend.

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“I think our defence let us down at the back end of the first half,” he said. “We gave away too many penalties and conceded some really soft tries. We spoke all week about not letting them come over from dummy-half – their big men close to the line – and we did that twice in five minutes. That is nowhere near good enough.”

Liam FinnLiam Finn
Liam Finn

Finn made his first start of the season in the Leigh game, at scrum-half, after coming off the bench as hooker in his previous appearances.

He had been dropped for the match at Leeds six days earlier and admitted that was “massively disappointing”.

He said: “There’s no point lying about it, you are disappointed as a professional rugby player to be left out of any team.

“I am no different, but I try to react in the right way.

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“I sulked for a little bit, but I tried to keep that away from the rest of the boys and tried to have as good an influence on them as I could, then I came back into training and tried to force my way back in.

“I am reasonably happy with the way I played.

“It was my first run-out at half-back. It felt good to play there and it felt even better to come away with two points.”