Wakefield Trinity coach salutes 'phenomenal group', hails 'special' win at Leeds Rhinos despite injury woes

Trinity returned to Betfred Super League, after a dominant season in the Championship, with a famous 14-12 win in front of 1,500 away fans in a crowd of more than 15,000. Trinity scored all their points during a devastating 10-minute spell in the first half and then withstood heavy pressure, even after being reduced to 12 men with Mason Lino in the sin-bin.

It was their first victory at Leeds since 2019 and Powell said: “When you’re coaching it’s all about the players, we facilitate the players to do what they do.

“You have different groups of players throughout your career and this is just a phenomenal group. I was really surprised when I went in last year and what we’ve added is a big part of what we are trying to do - just good blokes who want to do something special.

“I thought that was great today, there were so many good character traits, it is an awesome foundation to play this game, because it’s a tough game. We did some special things today.”

Reflecting on the game, Powell said: “I thought we executed really well in the first half. We played them on Boxing Day and got a few little tips from that. We felt if we executed well, we’d be able to open them up a little bit.

“That was the story of it. Our decision-making from both halves was very good and our spine in the first half was phenomenal. They completely dominated the game.

“I thought we were a bit unlucky not to be further [than 14-6] ahead at half-time. We gifted Leeds and opportunity to come back at us and then started the second half really poorly.

“We had to dig pretty deep then to find our way into the winning enclosure. Some of the things we did to stop tries were outstanding, putting our bodies in places it’s pretty uncomfortable to be.

“The level of commitment from everybody was outstanding and there were some big, big plays defensively. I thought we were pretty loose with the ball and that gifted Leeds an opportunity to attack us, but we had all the answers defensively.”

Trinity - who were drawn away to Huddersfield Giants in the fourth round of the Challenge Cup later on Saturday - lost Liam Hood to an ankle injury. Ky Rodwell didn’t play and Powell revealed: “He did his hamstring early in the week.

“It’s a grade two so he’ll be out six weeks, maybe even more. That’s very disappointing, but it happens.”