Here's why Wakefield Trinity's Daryl Powell says Castleford Tigers are 'favourites' for Magic Weekend derby
Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell reckons the odds are stacked against his side for their second meeting with Castleford Tigers in 18 days.
Trinity hit back from 12-0 down at half-time to snatch a 13-12 victory on home soil in last month’s encounter, which they had been tipped to win comfortably. The rematch takes place tomorrow (Sunday) at St James’ Park in Newcastle and Powell feels the situation has “flipped on its head since then”, with his side hit by injuries while Castleford have strengthened.
Tom Amone has bolstered Tigers’ pack and Chris Atkin is set to make his debut at Magic Weekend after joining them from Salford Red Devils. By contrast, Wakefield have lost tough forwards Ky Rodwell, Caleb Hamlin-Uele and Renouf Atoni from the team on duty at Easter. In addition, Trinity are on the back of an extra-time defeat at Catalans Dragons and Tigers picked up their second win of the season last week, hammering Huddersfield Giants.
“Before we played them last time I reckon everyone thought we were going to win it easily, but I never felt like that,” Powell reflected. “It is a derby game and I thought they played completely differently to the way they had before.
“You’d say they’d be pretty strong favourites this time, the way things have gone with our injuries and Castleford’s strengthening. I reckon their last two performances will have given them a whole lot of confidence so they’ll come into it feeling like they’ve got a great chance. It’s a tough one for us, for sure.”
Jake Trueman’s return at stand-off - following a back problem - will give Trinity a lift, but Powell admitted the number of top forwards missing is a worry. “Our depth in the middle is being challenged at the moment,” he conceded.
“We’ve still got good players in those positions, but we aren’t picking from strength. Castleford have signed a fair few middle-unit players and they are potentially leaving players out at the minute. I expect Castleford will be feeling pretty good about themselves, they won last week and were pretty close against us. They’ll feel a bit unlucky they didn’t win that game. I think they have done a good job, they will be pretty happy with where they are and they have stiffened up their ranks.”
Powell – who is a big fan of the Magic Weekend concept – admitted facing a team twice in three league games is strange, but stressed what happened at Easter has little bearing on tomorrow. “Since last time, they’ve signed four or five players, which is a bit of a luxury,” he noted. “They are kind of a different team - to put five players in their team and take seven or eight out of ours, which is what has happened, it does look different.”
Despite their injury woes, Powell insisted Trinity have the players and form to repeat their win from two weeks ago. “We’ve done a really good job this year,” he stated. “We could easily be another three wins to the good, but we aren’t - we are learning lessons every week and I think we’ve done an awesome job so far.”