Injuries keep piling up for winless Wildcats

They lost 40-22 at home to Wigan Warriors on Thursday, leaving the West Yorkshire club still cut adrift at the bottom.

However, they fashioned four tries against last season’s beaten Grand Finalists and made numerous line breaks to hint at their potential and it was far better than their last league outing, the embarrassing, record-equalling 80-0 defeat at Warrington.

“It has been a tough few weeks,” admitted second-row Kirmond, with depleted Trinity losing three more players to injury.

“The Warrington defeat was probably the lowest point so far but we’ve talked about making gradual improvements.

“The win against Halifax in the Challenge Cup last week gave us a bit of confidence versus Wigan.

“We were disappointed to concede a few in the second half on Thursday but it was a much better performance from us.”

On the issues at hand, try-scorer Kirmond admitted: “It’s the things we’ve talked about again – turning the ball over too easily. We just did that a little bit much.

“We kept giving ourselves a chance, though, and it shows we are a good attacking threat.

“Wigan are a really good defensive team yet we still scored some decent tries against them so it’s onto next week. We will keep improving.”

Given they head to champions St Helens on Friday, however, their difficult challenge is all the more onerous.

Already without six first-team players versus Wigan, they lost 18-year-old loose forward Jordan Crowther to injury just five minutes into his first start.

Former Leeds Rhinos prop Ian Kirke broke a thumb just six days after finally making his debut after another injury had sidelined him since Boxing Day.

Danny Washbrook also damaged a rib that could prevent him from playing at Langtree Park but Trinity coach James Webster said: “We definitely didn’t get beaten on effort.

“We tried to get a foothold in the game but came up with crucial errors at crucial times.

“Even though we scored some points, we didn’t build pressure, we never sat on their try-line. But it’s a good learning curve for us.

“I came here looking for improvement and I got that. If we get the same improvement next week, we might get Saints.”

On the luckless 33 year-old Kirke, he added: “It’s not a nice break apparently. He’s going to be (out) a while, although it depends if he needs an operation.”