'He'll be a superstar': Wakefield Trinity's Lewis Murphy tipped for huge future

Murphy, 20, made his debut earlier this season and has scored seven tries in 13 Betfred Super League appearances, including a brace in last week’s 32-6 win at Castleford Tigers.

He also contributed a crucial try-saving tackle, when Wakefield led 12-0 late in the first half and teammate Mason Lino reckons Murphy can go on to become a “superstar”.

“He’s a gun, a freak,” Lino said

“He’s only young, he has got a long way to go and he is going to get better.

“He keeps his head down and works really hard on his game and I can see him being a superstar in the future.”

Murphy had a tough first game against Leeds early in the campaign and Lino said the way he has bounced back “shows the type of character he is”.

He noted: “He didn’t start the way he wanted to, but he has stepped up and worked really hard.

“To see him grow as a player and a person is really cool.”

Trinity’s win at the Jungle was their first in 18 meetings with Tigers, a losing run dating back to 2015 and lifted them off the bottom of the table.

It came five days after a golden-point loss to champions St Helens and Lino admitted: “It’s a bit of a relief, obviously.

“It has been a long time and I am happy the boys backed up from last week’s performance.

“Obviously that didn’t go our way, but we backed up our defensive effort and I am proud of the boys.

“At Wakefield, when we have our backs against the wall, we step up.

“I thought we did that, but we are not out of the woods yet.

“We will recover and look forward to the next game.”

Toulouse, who began round 21 ahead of Trinity on points difference, were beaten by Hull before Wakefield’s game kicked off.

Lino said he wasn’t aware of that result before the derby, but added: “That’s a good result for us, but all we can focus on is what we can control.

“That’s recovering well and preparing to play well against Catalans [this] week.

“That’s going to be a big one and we need to back up.”

Lee Radford, the Castleford boss, admitted his team were “out-enthused”, despite needing a win to stay in the hunt for a top four finish and home play-off.

Lino said: “It was a lot of factors, really.

“We have a really good prep’, even though it was a short turnaround.

“I think the boys are really buying into what we are trying to do for the next six weeks.

“We went all the way with Saints and to back it up again definitely shows what we are capable of.

“We’ve just got to keep it going. We’ll assess the video and look forward to Catalans.”

Ending the long Castleford hoodoo was a bonus for Trinity.

“It was mentioned early in the week,” Lino conceded.

“It has been a long time.

“Most of the boys have been here longer than me so to get it off their shoulders is a pretty proud moment for them.”