Willie Poching in the market to bolster his squad at Wakefield Trinity

Trinity look set to lose some first-choice players at the end of this season, with winger Tom Johnstone expected to sign for Catalans Dragons, captain Jacob Miller being linked with Castleford Tigers and Hull KR understood to be keen on forward James Batchelor.

But Poching insisted Wakefield are still hopeful of retaining those players and confirmed the recruitment process for 2023 has begun.

“We are down the line talking to people,” Poching said.

“Obviously if people do go, we have to replace them.

“It’s a cycle that’s on-going.”

Poching is remaining upbeat, despite Trinity’s seventh successive defeat, 24-6 at Leeds Rhinos three days ago.

That left Trinity second from bottom in Betfred Super League, just two points clear of Toulouise Olympique.

Poching admitted his team made too many mistakes but felt there were encouraging signs.

“I thought we made some inroads and some improvements defensively, but we had to defend too much on the back of some of our errors,” he said.

“We made 15 errors in the game and nine of those were down our end of the field.

“Regardless of who you play, that defensive load takes its toll on you.

“Look at the scoreboard and you might think I am crazy talking about [having made] defensive improvements, but there were some attitudinal switches that were really heartening for us.”

Trinity won four successive games in March and April and Poching reckons they can go on a similar run once they eliminate the mistakes that dogged them against Leeds.

“If we can improve our ball control and ball retention and give ourselves some opportunities to score and put some pressure on the opposition, we will turn the corner,” he pledged.

“I still have a big belief we will do it.

“It is coming, it is on its way.”

Poching admitted a “lack of confidence” contributed to the costly errors.

“The only way I know to get confidence in that is to repeat those skills and keep honing them and get the belief back,” he said.

“Then the confidence will come.

“We have got a couple of weeks now to hone those skills and get that confidence back.

“I think that’s a big part of it, there was some uncharacteristic stuff [on Friday].

“We fix that up and keep improving on our very good attitude to defend and we will turn the corner.”

Poching admitted Trinity were hampered by the loss of Lee Gaskell, who failed a head injury assessment, but is confident the full-back/half-back will be available for their next game, at home to Hull on Sunday, June 5.

Poching said: “He failed his head test, he went to fall on the ball and copped a stray knee.

“He has got a bit of a lump under his cheek.”