Daryl Powell believes the task of taking his Wakefield Trinity to side to Sewell Group Craven Park is the biggest challenge in rugby league right now – but one Wakefield Trinity are ready to embrace.
Powell’s side heads to east Hull after picking up their best result of the season, toppling defending Super League champions Wigan Warriors last week. Ironically, that result did the Robins a favour as it saw them open up a four-point lead at the top of the competition.
However, Wakefield head across the M62 looking to knock off the other outstanding team in the competition this year and while that is a daunting task, it’s one Wakefield are excited by.
“I would say the odds are stacked against us,” Powell said. “But like I’ve been saying, the confidence is growing week to week with the performances that we put in. We could have easily beat Leeds like we could have easily held on to beat Leigh.
“So I just feel like our confidence is growing. But I think this is the biggest challenge at the moment. The way they are going, they look like they’re impregnable at the moment. So yeah, this is a huge challenge for us.
“That’s what the game’s about. We had a good look at them a while back in round two and I thought we acquitted ourselves pretty well. We were a goal kick away from Golden Point. We know how difficult the challenge is. But that’s the game. And that’s the beauty of it really. We should be excited by it.
“We’re excited to go there and see what we can do against the best team in the comp but we’ve been acquitting ourselves pretty well most of the year, pretty much all the year, to be honest. So this is the next step for us, to put our foot into the hot bath and see if we can manage the heat.”
Like many of his other colleagues, Powell spoke highly of the Robins’ performances.
“They’ve got a lot of maturity in the team,” Powell said. “They have been together for a long time. They’ve got all the key players still out there, they’ve got a couple missing but they can cover that with the depth they’ve got.
“They’ve been building for a number of years now. They’re in a place where they’re challenging for everything. It looks like they’re in a place where the League Leaders’ Shield is theirs to lose.
“They’re absolutely flying. Everybody’s pretty respectful of what they’ve done over the last few years to get them to this position. It’s a very intense environment as well. Probably the most I would say in Super League, it will be absolutely rammed. They’ve got that big stand with thousands of supporters, and it’s pretty vociferous. There are not many there wanting us to win. We’re going to need our support to be pretty vocal, which they are. So we’ll rely on them a lot in the game tomorrow.”