DARYL POWELL is liking his equivalent of a ‘bomb squad’ – but wishes Wakefield Trinity’s starting men left less of a job to do.
The current trend in rugby union, inspired by double world champions South Africa, is to pack many of the biggest forwards onto the bench for a strong impact towards the end of the game.
And with a wealth of props at their disposal, Wakefield have been trying out their own high-powered subs strategy.
In last Friday’s clash with Catalans Dragons they put four big men on the bench in loose-forward Jazz Tevaga plus front-rowers Caleb Hamlin-Uele, Caius Faatili and Tray Lolesio.
It helped turn an early 10-0 deficit into a 58-10 triumph, with Faatili scoring a second-half hat-trick of tries.
Wakefield also trailed 14-0 at Leeds Rhinos and 16-0 to St Helens in their two prior matches, but were unable to fully recover those deficits.
“We’re starting a little bit slow,” admitted coach Powell, who will again be without fullback Max Jowitt and winger Tom Johnstone at Toulouse Olympique on Saturday due to injury.
“I’ve not chased it too much but there are key stats around scoring first and being in front at half-time that are important.
“Conceding first is a bit of an issue and I think we need to be better at getting out of the blocks quicker and being a bit more durable.
“We’re digging our way out of situations, but I don’t think we should need to be as much as we are.”
Skipper Mike McMeeken has started each of those games with a different front-row partner each time in Lolesio, Hamlin-Uele and Ky Rodwell respectively.
“Ky, Mike and Pittsy (loose-forward Jay Pitts) is a solid starting combination, then those guys coming off the bench are all powerhouses,” explained Powell.
“At the moment I feel like that’s the best combination, and obviously there’s Jazz as well. It’s getting the balance and combinations right.
“It’s just about how I feel the game is going to be and how we can get the best out of our start and then our bench.
“Caius has got a spark about him, Caleb is a big physical player and Tray is like a bullet out of a gun. It’s good to see how they are combining off the bench for us and doing a great job.”