Latest news with #DarylPowell
BBC News
28-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Veteran Pitts signs new Wakefield contract
Veteran forward Jay Pitts has signed a new two-year contract to stay at Wakefield 35-year-old, who can play as either a second row or loose forward, will remain with Trinity until the end of the 2027 has been with the club since joining from London Broncos ahead of the 2020 season and has now played 150 games for them."Both on and off the field, Jay's leadership is outstanding; he sets high standards for others to follow, and this consistency has been superb," head coach Daryl Powell told the club's are sixth in Super League with seven wins from their 12 games.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Mega' Newcastle set for eighth Magic Weekend
Super League's Magic Weekend makes its return this early May bank holiday weekend as all 12 sides feature in a feast of rugby league on Saturday and event also returns to Newcastle United's St James' Park after a year's absence when Leeds' Elland Road played host in will be the eighth time the venue has held the event but what is it that keeps the sport coming back?BBC Sport spoke to those familiar with the Magic Weekend to find out. 'If the Aussies are nicking something off us it's decent' St James' Park first held the event in 2015 and ever since it has been a favourite on the calendar for fans and players hosted the Magic Weekend another six times until 2023 - missing out only in 2019 when Liverpool's Anfield played host and 2020 when the event was cancelled because of the Covid is the success of the format, Australia's National Rugby League (NRL) adopted it from 2019 under the Magic Round moniker - and have held it at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium ever the NRL's Magic Round also takes place this weekend."If the Aussies are nicking something off us, it's a decent event isn't it?" Wakefield head coach Daryl Powell told BBC Radio Leeds."I've always enjoyed it. It's kind of a party atmosphere for the fans which is great."St James' Park is really good as a venue, it feels great when you play there. It's great for fans and I think the teams see it as something special."Powell's comments were echoed by Castleford boss Danny McGuire, who praised the decision to return to a tried and tested venue."I'm glad it's back at Newcastle, I think it's a really good venue for it - I think the fans probably take to it more than Leeds last year," he added."I went to the Saturday games last year and I don't think there was the same atmosphere." 2025 Magic Weekend fixtures Saturday, 3 MayLeigh Leopards v Catalans Dragons (15:00 BST)Hull KR v Salford Red Devils (17:15)St Helens v Leeds Rhinos (19:30)Sunday, 4 MayHuddersfield Giants v Hull FC (13:00)Wigan Warriors v Warrington Wolves (15:15)Castleford Tigers v Wakefield Trinity (17:30) Luckley's 'childhood dream' return The event is more than just a return to a well-loved ground for Hull KR forward Sam Luckley - it is literally a Newcastle-born prop made his Magic Weekend debut at the ground in 2021 with Salford and appeared there again for the Red Devils off the bench the following featured again at St James' Park for Hull KR in 2023 and would be delighted to make a fourth appearance there and seal another victory for the league leaders."It's my childhood dream," he told BBC Sport. "It means so much to me. I've played here a few times now and it just gets better and better."I felt a bit lost last year at Leeds but it's nice to come back."With Newcastle United winning the Carabao Cup recently, there is a sporting buzz about the city. Will that be reflected in the level of support this weekend?"With the football, everyone's buzzing so I think Newcastle's the best place to be at the minute," Luckley of the perks of St James' Park is the fact it is centrally located in Newcastle, meaning, unlike some venues used in the past, fans can drift in and out of the stadium and enjoy what the city has to offer."It's probably my favourite - all the family come down for it, it's just a mega occasion," Warrington centre Toby King told BBC Sport."The city has a proper vibrant party lifestyle in it and there's a lot of places to enjoy yourself in Newcastle." 'To have a team in Newcastle would be a dream' It is almost 20 years since the first Magic Weekend event was held in 2007 at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and it has been a staple on the Super League calendar ever now the event has settled on Newcastle as its most logical and loved home, can that inspire the game to break out of its heartlands?Wigan hooker Kruise Leeming thinks so."I'm all for anything that is filling stadiums and getting a load of fans together," Leeming told BBC Sport."Our sport is so unique in that aspect that you can have all different sets of fans together with no trouble. It's a family event."We've seen what happened in Vegas [with March's rugby league festival which included a Super League game between Wigan and Warrington] and how much of a success that was."To have it [Magic Weekend] in Newcastle, it's a great venue and a great hotbed for rugby league."The more teams we can have in different areas of England the better. To have a team in Newcastle filling out this stadium every week, it would be a dream."So, what does the event mean to someone relatively new to Magic Weekend?Hull FC forward Herman Ese'ese believes a stadium with the stature of St James' Park is befitting the event."I'm a big fan, I got my first taste last year in Leeds - it's great for the fans and the game and I'm really excited about it," he told BBC Sport."My first thought was how big the stadium is compared to some we play at during the season. "It's exciting for all the teams to come here and spend some time together and play at a nice stadium."
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Win tickets to see Wire's first match after Las Vegas trip
WARRINGTON Wolves will be back on home soil next weekend. And you could be there to see them. The Wire will take on Wakefield Trinity at The Halliwell Jones Stadium on March 9 after playing Wigan this weekend in Las Vegas. Trinity have made an impressive start on their return to Super League and are coached by ex-Wire boss Daryl Powell. We have teamed up with Wolves to offer a family ticket for the game which kicks off at 1pm. To be in with a chance of winning just tell us who coaches Wakefield. Leave your answers here Usual Newsquest competition rules apply. The deadline for entries is close of play on Monday, March 3. You must be free to watch the game on March 9.
BBC News
17-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
The wild results that made Super League so compelling
Super League's opening weekend of the 2025 season had a stark contrast in results across the first six fixtures of the champions Wigan - off the back of a history-making quadruple-winning season in 2024 - played out an incredible record-breaking scoreless 80 minutes against town rivals Leigh, who eventually won 1-0 in golden point extra low-scoring affair was a total contrast from St Helens' whopping 82-0 win over Salford Red Devils just two days a remarkable gameweek came to an end, BBC Sport looked into the archive to see where these results stack up in comparison to some notable fixtures in years gone by. Have there been other low-scoring wins? The scorecard for Leigh's emphatic win over Wigan last week had just one name on there - Gareth O'Brien, who kicked the decisive drop-goal to gift the Leopards victory after an astonishing 80 minutes which resulted in the first 0-0 draw in the competition's 29-year history."I got my head down, got my foot through it and it went over," he said to BBC Radio Manchester of his match-winning kick."For it to be 0-0 it just shows what sort of game it was. The defences came out on top."The low-scoring affair at the Brick Community Stadium is not the only time tough defence has decided a crucial game of rugby league and resulted in a scoreless 80 minutes, took on Hull in a Challenge Cup semi-final in March 1988 which ended 0-0 and required a replay to decide who would reach that season's final at narrowly edged out the Airlie Birds four days later in another tight affair, running out 4-3 winners at Elland Road, before they were well beaten 32-12 by Wigan in the final a month later in front of 94,000 in the capital. Fast forward nine years and Salford - in their first game in Super League - kicked off their top-flight campaign with a narrow 4-0 win over Castleford at the Willows in March last week's remarkable fixture in Wigan, that was the joint record lowest scoring Super League fixture, alongside St Helens' 4-0 win at a muddy Celtic Crusaders in March 2009, Saints' edgy 4-0 win over Castleford in 2019 and Warrington's dour try-less 4-0 victory against Hull FC in because a fixture is low-scoring does not indicate lack of effort - indeed, St Helens' supporters paid tribute to the Crusaders at the end of their narrow 2009 win, cheering the Welshmen off the pitch for their win against Castleford 10 years later was a well-earned victory off the back of a chastening defeat at Wembley by Warrington in the Challenge Cup the week before, however it did herald the beginning of a remarkable era of dominance at the turn of the decade which saw the club win four successive Super League results were in contrast to Warrington's 2022 triumph over Hull, however, with then-head coach Daryl Powell doing little to hype up the result in the aftermath of their victory."Both teams looked nervous, the crowd were nervous, the coach was nervous and we just needed to come out of the other side of it with a victory," he said. Salford's other drubbings in the Super League era St Helens ran in a whopping 15 tries to demolish Salford Red Devils 82-0 on Saturday to register the biggest winning margin in Super League win did come against a Salford side which named just 16 players in their squad, including eight debutants, because of a salary cap imposed with their takeover still to be what fixture did Saints' impressive victory dethrone? Well, at the turn of the millennium both Leeds and Bradford won by an 80-point margin, with poor old Salford on the receiving end of one of those 1999, Leeds defeated Huddersfield 86-6 with Iestyn Harris scoring four tries and Paul Sterling also registering a hat-trick on a dismal day for the 12 months later in June 2000, Jamie Peacock claimed a hat-trick and Robbie Hunter-Paul scored four tries of his own as Bradford almost broke the 100-point barrier with their 96-16 thumping of fact, the Red Devils have some unwanted pedigree with such results - having also been on the end of a 70-6 hiding at Wigan in the past 10 years, Warrington have twice scored 80 points against an opponent - first against Wakefield in a whopping 80-0 win in 2015 and again three years later in a Super 8s contest against Hull FC when they ran out 80-10 winners."I hate looking for excuses but over the last month I think we have spent around two hours as a team training together, for the simple reason I don't have enough people. We have just got to suck it up at the moment," then-Wakefield boss James Webster said having, to his credit, faced the media after the received the backing of Trinity chairman Michael Carter in the aftermath, but left the club just a month later. Wigan narrowly missed out on setting the record themselves in 2013 off the back of beating Hull KR 84-6 at Craven rivals Leigh have also been on the end of a morale-depleting thrashing - having been hammered 78-4 by St Helens in 2005, in a game where a 17-year-old Chris Hill made his senior what about a stalemate? In 1994, the highest scoring draw took place as Leeds drew 46-46 with Sheffield Rhinos came from 12-20 down at half-time to claw back some glory in a remarkable second half which saw two tries scored in the final three minutes.
The Guardian
15-02-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Wakefield mark Super League return with shock victory over Leeds
Wakefield Trinity marked their return to Super League with a surprise victory at West Yorkshire rivals Leeds Rhinos, as an opening weekend filled with shocks continued. The Rhinos have undergone another expensive off-season overhaul as they enter an eighth season since their last Super League title. The expectation here was that they would be too strong and too powerful for a Wakefield side not only playing their first game back in Super League since promotion, but without a number of key forwards due to an early-season injury crisis. But Daryl Powell's side were magnificent and worthy winners to start their campaign with an excellent victory. After Leigh's historic 1-0 win at Wigan on Thursday and Hull FC's winat Catalans on Friday, this was the latest indicator that Super League could be shaping up to be more unpredictable than ever in 2025: which can only be a good thing for the competition. Three tries in 10 minutes for Wakefield proved to be the difference. After a fairly even opening quarter, Leeds combusted in that 10-minute period to fall 14-0 behind in the blink of an eye. Wakefield broke the deadlock when they kept the ball alive superbly on the last tackle, leading to Max Jowitt crossing before converting to make it 6-0. Three minutes later, Jowitt then finished a sublime break from Jake Trueman, who was the star on his Wakefield debut, to make it 10-0 before Mason Lino capitalised on a shocking Jake Connor error to touch down a loose ball to compound Leeds' misery. The Rhinos narrowed the deficit two minutes before the break with a much-needed moment, when Harry Newman grounded a Brodie Croft kick to reduce the arrears to eight at half-time. But in truth, that was nothing more than a false dawn for Leeds, who seriously flattered to deceive all afternoon. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion They huffed and puffed with little success throughout a timid and laboured second half. Not even when Wakefield were reduced to 12 men after Mason Lino's sin-binning could they craft an opening to score again. By the time they finally did, when Sam Lisone powered over from close-range, there were just 20 seconds remaining and Wakefield saw off that period with minimal fuss to claim victory against the odds.
