How Huddersfield Giants coach proved an inspiration to Wakefield Trinity’s Willie Poching

Poching will look to continue his application to secure the Trinity job on a full-time basis by inspiring a fourth win out of five games when they face their West Yorkshire rivals at Magic Weekend tomorrow.

Three of those victories since replacing Chris Chester have come against clubs where he previously worked as an assistant: Warrington Wolves, Hull KR and Leeds Rhinos.

The New Zealander was also Watson’s assistant at Salford in the 2017 campaign before working under Simon Woolford at Huddersfield two years later.

But Poching said: “I first came across Watto as a coach when he was at Swinton Lions and I was at Warrington coming through.

“Watching his energy and learning about his knowledge of the game excited me when he gave me chance to join him at Salford. And then I got to see not just how passionate he is for the game but actual coaching and how hard he works at his craft and helping players.

“That was an eye-opener and a real big thing to learn from. I learned a lot from him on how hard coaching can be: the challenges that come with it and stuff around managing players, your staff and your board which he is very, very good at.”

Wakefield welcome back Joe Westerman after the England loose forward missed Monday’s win over Leeds.

Poching said: “We’ll have a look at where he can fit in our jigsaw puzzle as some of the guys who played on Monday performed really well and could justify keeping their spot.

“But he is such an important player for us.”

Hooker Josh Wood is also back for the first time since suffering an elbow injury in April.