Wakefield Trinity coach Daryl Powell issues cautious praise after Catalans Dragons drubbing
Daryl Powell issued cautious praise to Wakefield Trinity after watching his side overcome another sluggish start to run in 58 unanswered points against Catalans Dragons.
Trinity fell behind at Belle Vue in a repeat of the recent defeats at St Helens and Leeds Rhinos, only this time they responded in emphatic fashion to blow the Dragons away.
Cauis Faatili led the way with a hat-trick in a remarkably one-sided second half that brought nine tries for Wakefield.
But Powell felt his side were beaten to the punch early on.
"We started really sloppy defensively," said Powell.
"We were running backwards a hell of a lot at the start of the game and conceded a couple of really soft tries.
"I'm just mindful that you don't want to start a game like that because sometimes you can't get that back. We were 14-0 against St Helens, the same against Leeds and then 10-0 again here.
"You don't really want those scores and to be relying on having to come back into a game. It's good to know that you can but I reckon a better start than that would be pretty helpful.
"In the second half, I just felt we were awesome. Our middle unit was so powerful and punched holes consistently. We took our chances.
"I thought we were pretty ruthless. It was an outstanding second-half performance."
Catalans raced into a 10-0 lead but that was a distant memory by the end of a chastening night in West Yorkshire.
Interim boss Ryan Sheridan did not hold back after watching the Dragons fold.
"That's an embarrassing second half," he said.
"I don’t think we touched the ball for 15 minutes and we had no energy in defence. Some of our defence was pretty disgraceful, to be honest."