Willie Poching happy to see Wakefield “remove shackles”

Correspondent

Wakefield caretaker coach Willie Poching was delighted his players heeded his plea to remove the shackles as they ended their five-match losing run with a thrilling 28-22 Super League win over Warrington in his first game in charge.

Wingers Tom Johnstone and Lee Kershaw scored long-range opportunist tries and scrum-half Mason Lino added 16 points on his return from injury as Trinity secured the points that finally banish any fear of relegation.

“My reaction is mixed,” said Poching, who stepped into the breach following the sacking of Chris Chester.

“There’s a bit of relief on the back of the week we’ve had and I’m really happy for the lads that they got the reward for their efforts today.

“We showed some resilience defensively and some real spirit, which is the most pleasing thing.

“I wanted them to play happy and play relaxed. I wanted to take some of the pressure that’s been on them.

“I wanted them to take the shackles off because in games we’ve won this year we played a style we’re capable of. I’m really pleased we took some of that from the training pitch.”

REPORT: Wakefield 28-22 Warrington: Willie Poching denies former club second place

Poching’s men led 20-0 after 51 minutes and were comfortably placed at 26-6 until the slow-starting Wolves came alive with three tries in five minutes from Blake Austin, Jake Mamo and Josh Charnley to set up a tense finish.

Wakefield were clearly rocking but Lino eased their growing anxiety with a late penalty – his sixth goal from six attempts.

“Going out to 20-0, there was always the danger the mindset was going to change,” Poching said.

“I need to have some conversations to see whether that’s right or not.

“We didn’t really have a lot of good ball in the second half and they were always a threat with the quality of player they have.

“Thankfully we had enough about us to finish the job.”

Super League Wakefield Trinity