Coach proud as injury-hit Trinity beat lowly Leeds

WAKEFIELD head coach Chris Chester hailed the finest win of his reign as they beat rivals Leeds 26-24 at Belle Vue.

Super League debutant Lee Kershaw opened the scoring in the 10th minute and was impressive throughout for injury-hit Trinity.

After tries from 19-year-old winger Kershaw and Reece Lyne put Wakefield 12-0 ahead, the Rhinos responded with scores from Liam Sutcliffe and Brett Ferres to level at 12-12 by half-time.

Yet Trinity were not to be denied as further tries from ex-Leeds winger Ben Jones-Bishop and full-back Max Jowitt ensured more misery for the visitors, who hit back through Matt Parcell and Tui Lolohea.

Chester said: “This is a team that will never get beaten on effort – that was evident today and we fought to the very last minute.

“We gave an opportunity to a young lad in Kershaw who was fantastic and certainly didn’t look out of place.

“He looked very strong with his carries and it’s great to be sat here as a proud coach of the Wakefield Trinity who has taken two points off Leeds Rhinos.

“That win today was probably my best at Wakefield Trinity.”

Trinity are decimated by injuries and Chester reckoned he was without ‘threequarters’ of his salary cap spend as key men such as Tom Johnstone, Bill Tupou and Jacob Miller are all sidelined.

Leeds counterpart Dave Furner was left to rue a ninth Super League defeat as their troubled campaign continued.

He said: “They went 12-0 up and we did really good to come back. We spoke at half-time about sticking to the gameplan and I just thought we went away from that in the second half.”