Wakefield Trinity reaction: Coach Willie Poching sees improvement in loss to Wigan Warriors

Trinity remain second from bottom in Betfred Super League, four points ahead of Toulouse Olympique who they meet at Newcastle on Saturday in the opening game of the Magic Weekend.

Trinity trailed 18-0 after 15 minutes and 40-12 early in the second half, but Poching was pleased by the way his time refused to give in.

They twice scored successive tries and put Wigan under heavy pressure for a time either side of the hour mark.

Wakefield had capitulated to a 74-10 loss at Salford Red Devils in their previous game and Poching said: “I thought some of our issue last week was our attitude.

“I thought some of our attitude was a lot better, in the way we approached it.

“There was a focused feel before the game, but we found ourselves under the pump too often, especially at the start.

“Scoreboard pressure can get to you and there was an element of that, but I thought some of the approach, to keep fighting, was a marked improvement on what we had last week.”

The coach felt some calls went against his team and admitted frustration led to half-back Mason Lino’s yellow card for dissent shortly before half-time, after he had been penalised for stripping the ball.

“I will have a chat through the week with Mason,” Poching said.

“He promises to me he didn’t swear at the referee, he was just venting some frustration.

“Speaking briefly to the referee afterwards, the sin-binning came because of the way he approached him so I need to manage some of that too - how we vent.”

Toulouse’s win over Hull KR on Saturday piled more pressure on Trinity.

Of this weekend’s relegation four-pointer, Poching insisted: “It’s another two points.”

He stressed: “Our focus will be on getting some improvement.

“We are back in on Tuesday and we’ll look to prepare as best we can.

“It is a major occasion for our sport, we are first up and we want to open it with a bang.”