Wakefield Trinity: We're working hard to get back on track '“ Hirst

Hirst did not play in the defeat at Castleford Tigers on Good Friday, but was in the side pipped 16-10 by Wigan Warriors on Easter Monday and 22-20 at Warrington Wolves five days later.

No points over Easter was a massive disappointment, but Hirst reckons the spirit shown by Trinity will stand them in good stead for the second half of rthe regular Betfred Super League campaign.

“It is a tough period for everyone, not just for us,” Hirst said. “It is no excuse, but there were some tired bodies out there on Saturday on both teams. That’s down to the effort we’ve put in in all three games really. To come up just short against Wigan and then on Saturday to lose on pretty much the last play was tough to take, but we are working really hard each other and we are turning up and getting each other out of bother.

“We are not far off, it’s just a case of closing games out a little bit better.”

Trinity led 12-0 after 10 minutes at Warrington and were 20-6 ahead early in the second half, but Hirst admitted they helped the hosts back into the game after the break. He said: “They are a quality team, full of internationals and if you give them a lot of field position they are going to punish you. That’s what they did.

“We could have found touch a bit more, but then again there were a couple of unforced errors. It is easy to say the halves should have put it into touch, but there were a couple of errors from us in the middle and from the backs.

“It is a team game and you are only as strong as your weakest link. We just came up a bit short. We are happy with the effort, but just gutted it wasn’t translated into points.”

Trinity’s next game is at home to Catalans Dragons on Sunday. Catalans are sixth in the table, one place ahead of Trinity.

“It’s nice to have a few days between games, but the Catalans game is important,” Hirst said. “It is a cliche, but every game is a big one.

“We have just got to put last week to bed. We’ll take the positives out of it, which there was a lot of and go again against a Catalans team who are coming good. It is going to be a tough test for us.”

Trinity are still in a strong position in the race for top-eight places and Hirst added: “We are half way through the season, we’ve played everybody and I think we probably feel we should be a bit higher up the table. We’ve had a few near misses so we are going into the second half full of confidence and hopefully we can kick on.”