DARYL POWELL praised his forward pack after Wakefield beat Leeds in their first game back in Super League.
Jay Pitts, Mike McMeeken and Matty Storton were among the impressive performers as Trinity secured a well-deserved win.
“There’s a lot of experience and toughness and rugby nous in that group – we’ve signed a good middle unit,” said coach Powell.
“I asked them to win the forward battle and they did that.
“Some of the things we did to stop tries was outstanding. The level of commitment from everybody was outstanding. There were some big, big plays defensively.
“We were loose at times with the ball and gifted Leeds opportunities to attack us but then we had all the answers defensively. They didn’t open us up with anything.”
It was a great way for Wakefield to mark their top-flight return after a year away.
Powell added: “We had to go through the Championship and we did that in such a humble, professional way, the whole club.
“We’ve built ourselves a foundation that allows us to come in and do what we did today.
“I think our foundations are rock solid, from the family who have bought the club, to the ground which is like a building site at the moment but will be an unbelievable stadium, then we have a team – certainly from an attitude point of view – which can match that.
“We feel we’ve done a pretty good job in recruitment and retention and we’re in a good place. Today showed our foundations are good and we’ll build on this.”
Leeds counterpart Brad Arthur lamented: “I thought we were bit erratic. We lacked a bit of calmness and composure.
“We tried too hard as individuals to do things instead of working together as a team.
“Maybe the occasion got the better of us and we didn’t handle it as well as they did.
“Everyone is disappointed. We had a big crowd and we need to do better for them.
“The effort and attitude was good, but we just didn’t get it right technically.”
