{"id":781494,"date":"2026-09-24T21:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T21:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781494\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T21:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T21:38:13","slug":"daryl-powell-delivers-honest-wigan-verdict-as-wakefield-trinity-eye-semi-final-upset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781494\/","title":{"rendered":"Daryl Powell delivers honest Wigan verdict as Wakefield Trinity eye semi-final upset"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2400\" height=\"1611\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AM2_4118.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6\">Wakefield Trinity head coach Daryl Powell insists his side possess the inner belief needed to cause a massive upset against Wigan Warriors in Saturday\u2019s Betfred Super League Play-Off semi-final.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"7\">Trinity travel to The Brick Community Stadium aiming to book a spot in the Grand Final at Old Trafford, entering as heavy underdogs against a formidable Wigan outfit.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"8\">Despite the scale of the task, Powell is adamant his squad will not be overawed by the occasion, pointing to their recent narrow trip to Wigan and a battle-hardening end-of-season run as key factors in their readiness.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9\">Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Powell laid out the tactical mindset and composure required to challenge Matt Peet\u2019s side for a place in the showpiece event.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">\u201cIt\u2019s a really big game. You don\u2019t want to overplay it because you just want the boys to go and play the game as they see it,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">\u201cI think that\u2019s important that we don\u2019t get carried away with how big it is. I think it\u2019s an important game for us.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"10\">\u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard all year to put ourselves in this position and we\u2019ve given ourselves a good opportunity. I think it\u2019s obvious that we\u2019re coming up against a team who everybody\u2019s viewing as the best team in the comp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    Most Read on Serious About Rugby League<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\">\u201cThey\u2019ve won their last 14, so I don\u2019t think there\u2019ll be many putting a lot of money on us this week, but I just feel like there\u2019s an inner confidence that we can go and enjoy this challenge, which is a big challenge going to Wigan.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"11\">\u201cI think the benefit we\u2019ve got is we went there a couple of weeks back and I thought we were pretty close in that game so there\u2019s a few things we\u2019d need to improve from that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Powell on big-game composure, Wigan\u2019s form and Trinity\u2019s tough run-in<\/p>\n<p>Red card stupidity, Willie Peters\u2019 legacy, and Super League Grand Final predictions \u2013 <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lryMnri4Mqo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"13\">Watching Wigan closely in recent weeks, Powell has been impressed by the clinical execution and defensive steel, but maintains that Trinity can match anyone when firing on all cylinders.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"14\">\u201cI was just watching Wigan over the last few weeks as well,\u201d Powell admitted.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"14\">\u201cI feel like, particularly against Leeds, I thought they were in a great place. The defence was like it normally is and their execution was great\u2026 Don\u2019t play the occasion, play the game.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"14\">\u201cI think that\u2019s the most important thing. Don\u2019t look too far ahead, just look where we are. Play the game, stay calm.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"14\">\u201cI think we\u2019ve been a really consistent team all year and done lots of quality things. We\u2019ve got an outstanding group of players and if everybody plays to their potential, then we give ourselves a great chance.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"14\">\u201cWigan are clear favourites, I think\u2026 but if everybody plays as well as they can, then we\u2019ve got one of the best teams in the comp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"15\">Reflecting on how Trinity prepared for the play-off pressure cooker, Powell emphasized that their grueling late-season fixture schedule has served as the ultimate preparation.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"16\">\u201cEverybody was asking me a few weeks back about whether I felt like the tough run-in was good for us and I think it was,\u201d Powell explained.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"16\">\u201cWe played Leeds and we were shooting for potentially first at that point and we lost the game in the second half.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"16\">A couple of weeks after that, we played Wigan and that was a great game where we learned a lot of lessons about not giving them scraps to feed off and then since then, we\u2019ve gone bang, bang, bang, bang.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"16\">We\u2019ve won four games, we\u2019ve been playing against teams that are in the top six, so I think using all that experience means we\u2019re pretty tuned in. We aren\u2019t dipping our toe in and out of tough games and softer games.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790285893_145_srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wakefield Trinity head coach Daryl Powell insists his side possess the inner belief needed to cause a massive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-781494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}