The Wakefield coach, Brian Smith, believes the quality of the Super League has risen this season – and as someone who has experienced a fair amount of rugby, he believes that can only be a good thing for the competition.
The 62-year-old, whose Wakefield side take on Catalans on Sunday, said: “I’ve seen Widnes play first-hand and I’ve seen Salford play a couple of times as well as us, that’s three of the bottom four from last year,” Smith said. “The three I’ve seen have certainly improved this year, and the others have improved quite a bit too.
“We’ve gone up a bit on our own record; we’re yet to prove we’re at the level where Widnes and Salford are though, running up big scores against top eight teams. Leeds and Huddersfield have found the early part of the season tough, and while it’s only a month old, the competition looks like it’ll be really competitive – and that is healthy.”
The Wildcats have won only one of their four games so far, but Smith offered an upbeat summation of his side’s chances for the year ahead despite a difficult but competitive start. “Within our own group I feel like we’re about where we thought we’d be,” he said. “On reflection we could have beaten Widnes on the opening day, Castleford outplayed us in every aspect, and we won at Hull KR in tough circumstances before losing to Warrington.
“Competing is the word we’ve liked to use, and our next stage involves us continuing that and having less lapses. I think we’re in a really good position to continue to develop into what I believe will be a pretty good team.”
Smith is also hopeful the frigid conditions will play into his side’s favour. “It’s going to be a bit of a slog and I think it puts things in our favour,” Smith said. “You certainly don’t see weather like this too often in Perpignan, but that’s all on paper – we’ve got to make it work in our advantage when the game kicks off on Sunday.”
