Wakefield Trinity: Season-end goals nailed down by hooker Wood

WAKEFIELD TRINITY are one point away from a place in the Betfred Super-8s, but hooker Kyle Wood says they have higher ambitions.
Kyle Wood.Kyle Wood.
Kyle Wood.

Their positive points difference means Trinity will almost certainly finish the regular season in the top-eight for a third successive year if they avoid defeat in either of their final two games – at home to Hull on Sunday and away against Huddersfield Giants five days later.

Trinity are sixth, three points clear of ninth-placed Leeds Rhinos and only two behind Hull in fifth. But if Wakefield and Huddersfield both lose this weekend and Rhinos beat bottom club Widnes Vikings, the scene will be set for a tense finale at John Smith’s Stadium.

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“We are looking up the table,” stressed Wood, who scored the try which began Trinity’s late fightback in last week’s 20-20 draw at Leeds.

“We have to play well in the next couple of games and it’ll all look after itself. I don’t think we have to be worrying too much, but we want to be going into the Super-8s maybe in touching distance of the top-four.

“If we get in the Super-8s we don’t just want to be at the bottom of that and playing in nothing games, we want to be playing good games every week and pushing for that top-four.”

Trinity were fifth in the Super-8s last year, but a lack of consistency – and a string of narrow defeats – has been costly so far this term. I think we’ve been unlucky in certain games,” Wood added.

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“We’ve been in pretty much every game, so I suppose that is being consistent, but there’s some games we didn’t finish off that we should’ve maybe won.

“Teams now are creeping up on us and they’ve got some real momentum behind them. They seem to have come out of nowhere whereas we’ve been winning one and losing one.

“It has been that kind of year.

“We just need that bit of form now and to get a bit of consistency and a couple of back-to-back wins.”

Wood felt Wakefield’s performance against Leeds, when they hit back from 18-6 and 20-12 behind, was a step forward,

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He said: “The boys started to get a bit of energy at the back end of the first half and we had a good finish to the game.

“We said in the changing room at the end we’re proud of ourselves for sticking in that game. We’ve got a real togetherness at the club and it showed in that last 10 minutes to bring it back like we did.

“We were unlucky with a couple of drop goals, but I think a draw was probably what we deserved.”