Wakefield Trinity 28 Warrington Wolves 22: Reaction as Willie Poching's reign begins with upset win

Poching was appointed interim boss last Tuesday, after Chris Chester was sacked with Trinity on a run of five successive defeats. Wakefield were 26-6 ahead as late as the 67th minute of yesterday’s game, before Warrington almost snatched the win with a dramatic late fightback.

“It was a bit of relief on the back of the week we’d had,” Poching said of his emotions at the final whistle. I was really happy for the lads and happy they got some reward for their effort. I was really pleased with how they played and how they scored some of our tries.

“We showed some resilience defensively and came up with tries through our tenacity and will and we showed some real spirit which was the most pleasing thing.”

Read more - Wakefield Trinity 28 Warrington Wolves 22: Interim-boss Willie Poching makes winning start in Super League thrillerPoching admitted he didn’t believe the game was won, even when Trinity led by 20 points midway through the final quarter.

“We didn’t really have a lot of good ball in the second half and they were always threatening, with the quality of player they had on the field,” he added.

“It was disappointing how they scored a couple of long-range tries on us. I was never really comfortable in that game, we took the two points to go 20-0 and there was always a danger the mindset would change. I felt it was the right thing to do to get us to that margin but whether mentally they felt it was done, I’m not sure.”

Of Warrington’s late rally, Poching admitted: “They caught us with our pants down.

“They were capable of coming up with things, but thankfully we had enough about us to finish off the job.”

Overall though, Poching was pleased to see Trinity enjoying their rugby again.

“We wanted them to just play happy and play relaxed,” he said. “I wanted to take some of the pressure off.”

The New Zealand-born 47-year-old, who was Chester’s assistant, has confirmed he wants the coaching role full-time. He insisted he is treating the final two months of the season as an “audition” and said: “I just want to do my job day to day and try and get the boys ready . I’ll focus on the now and the rest will take care of itself.”