Willie Poching on the issues Wakefield Trinity must fix amidst losing run

Wakefield Trinity coach Willie Poching admits there is “plenty to fix up” as he prepares his side for Thursday’s crunch home derby clash with Huddersfield.

Having started the season with four straight losses, Trinity then totted up four successive wins, including eye-catching back-to-back successes at Warrington in Super League, then the Challenge Cup sixth round.

But after losing 36-6 at home to Wigan in the Cup quarter-finals, Poching’s men were beaten at home to Castleford then away to Wigan over Easter before Saturday’s 32-10 setback at Hull KR, which took their points against tally in the league to 266 in ten games.

“We’re in a bit of a rut at the moment, that’s quite obvious, and we’ve got to get out of it,” Poching said after seeing his side blanked by Rovers in the first half before tries by Jacob Miller and Lewis Murphy in the second.

“I’m hurting just like the players. I’m disappointed with the performance. We weren’t quite hitting the mark and we missed opportunities that we created.

“There was a lack of composure, offensively and defensively, there is plenty for us to fix up.”

Poching had called for a big defensive improvement in the wake of the 54-10 Easter Monday defeat at Wigan.

“We were way off,” he admitted after the DW Stadium loss.

“We tried to address some of that at half-time, but we didn’t quite get a hold on what we wanted to do at the start of the second half.

“There were some moments too often when we couldn’t get a quick play-the-ball. It was a physical thing and an attitude thing.”

After facing Huddersfield, who have themselves taken only one point from the last six available, Wakefield have a blank weekend before the key fixture against Toulouse in France on Sunday, May 15.

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