Castleford Tigers 23 Wakefield Trinity 18: Why both coaches were only half satisfied with their teams’ performance

Daryl Powell felt Castleford Tigers were outstanding in the first half of their 23-18 win, but described their display after the break as “terrible”.

By contrast, Wakefield Trinity’s caretaker chief Willie Poching was scathing about their opening 40 minutes, but highly encouraged by the way they fought back from 23-6 behind.

“I thought we were really good in the first half, really controlled,” said Powell.

“Defensively we were outstanding, we got after Wakefield, controlled the territory and came up with some real smart plays.

“Then, the second half was terrible - just the complete opposite.

“Wakefield stepped up, we thought we had the game won and I just thought it was a really poor second-half performance.

“We never really got hold of it and could have easily lost it at the end.”

Poching, in his second game since taking over from Chris Chester, also reckoned it was “a bit of a mix” from his team.

“I was disappointed with our first half effort and we had some words at half-time to try and switch our mindset,” he stated.

“I think we weren’t quite at the races and when we were 19-6 down I thought we were in a position we deserved to be in because of our lack of aggression and lack of punch, especially defensively.

“When we changed our mindset in the second half I thought we were a real different team and with that, I am pretty happy.”