Wakefield’s new coach, Brian Smith, saw first-hand the scale of the job he has taken on when his side slumped to a 14th consecutive Super League defeat at the hands of a ruthless Leeds.
Smith, who was appointed last week as the replacement for James Webster, does not officially take charge until Monday but he watched Leeds run in 11 tries to underline what a mammoth task he has on his hands to keep Wakefield in Super League.
His task is similar to Webster’s when he took charge of the club midway through last season. Webster eventually steered Wakefield away from relegation with a run of four wins from his first five. A repeat of that under Smith would not guide Wakefield to safety but would provide momentum before the middle-eights phase.
Wakefield were simply outclassed and outgunned by Leeds on a miserable afternoon for the club, whose place in the middle-eights can be confirmed as early as next weekend. Yet Smith insisted afterwards that despite another heavy loss he saw plenty of positives, a message he spelled out to the squad personally.
“The game was true to form for Wakefield this season, I guess,” said the 61-year-old. “There’s a lot of work to be done but there’s some things I can see that are easy to identify.
“It starts with small improvements; us putting in good preparation for each game we play. I’ll make some adjustments and hopefully some improvements will come as a result of that.
“They need to let me do the worrying and focus on playing,” Smith added.
Their victory meant Leeds returned to the top of Super League on an afternoon that was more about the fanfare surrounding Smith than about the Rhinos.
Smith coached the Leeds coach, Brian McDermott, during their time at Bradford together in 1996 and he provided a typically demanding report card for his side despite the win.
“I didn’t think we were great in the first half and things needed to be addressed,” McDermott said. “Our kicking game was poor, but in the second half we scored some tries against a team lacking in confidence.”
After 35 minutes Smith would have taken plenty of heart from what he had seen: by that point Wakefield trailed only 18-10 courtesy of tries from Tom Johnstone and Pita Godinet. However, when Carl Ablett scored for Leeds two minutes from the interval it seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Leeds emerged from the restart and promptly scored seven tries in an incredible 20-minute spell. This included the full-back, Liam Sutcliffe, completing a hat-trick after scoring in the first half – Sutcliffe was one of 13 players in the Leeds squad of 17 who came through the club’s academy. From 24-10 at the break, Leeds tore into a 58-10 lead in no time.
To their credit, Wakefield finished the stronger, and tries from Danny Kirmond, Nick Scruton and a second for Johnstone suggested Smith’s job may not be quite as impossible as it seemed earlier.
Leeds Sutcliffe; Hall, Keinhorst, Watkins, Handley; McGuire, Burrow; Peacock, Aiton, Cuthbertson, Ward, Ablett, Sinfield. Interchange Walters, Yates, Lilley, Singleton. Tries Sutcliffe 3, McGuire, Burrow, Ablett, Handley 2, Keinhorst, Singleton 2. Goals Sinfield 5, Sutcliffe 2.
Wakefield Owen; Johnstone, Hall, Arundel, Riley; Godinet, T Smith; Scruton, Howarth, Kavanagh, Washbrook, Kirmond, D Smith. Interchange McShane, Simon, Ryan, Annakin. Tries Johnstone 2, Godinet, Kirmond, Scruton. Goals Hall, Godinet 2 Referee J Cobb Attendance 4,597
