Wakefield coach Brian Smith encouraged by 'second chance'
Last Updated: 07/06/15 9:28pm
New Wakefield head coach Brian Smith told his players to let him do the worrying after watching the Wildcats slump to their 14th successive defeat against Super League leaders Leeds.
The 61-year-old Australian touched down on English soil on Thursday and admitted he was still suffering from jet lag as the Rhinos ran in 11 tries in a 58-26 rout which highlighted the size of the task facing the former Hull and Bradford coach.
Smith spoke to the Wakefield players following their latest heavy loss and afterwards revealed he is looking to take some of the pressure off his struggling squad.
"Some of what I said is very private but the guts of it was, 'Let me do the worrying'," he said.
Smith officially begins his role on Monday and one of his first tasks will be to restore confidence in a side which has not tasted success since beating Hull KR on February 15.
I'm not frightened by the new structure but probably encouraged that we have a second chance.
Brian Smith
Despite Wakefield's troubles, Smith insisted he had no hesitation in accepting the challenge of keeping the club in Super League after speaking with his predecessor James Webster.
"A week before I wasn't ready but I was that week," he said. "James told me, 'I think they need an experienced coach, Smithy'. I put the phone down and overnight I thought, 'I used to be an experienced coach'.
"(Wakefield chairman) Michael (Carter) rang me and it was an easy decision after just a 10-minute conversation."
'Second chance'
The Wildcats may be cut adrift at the bottom but the nature of the format in 2015 means they will be able to start again after 23 rounds, when they will fight it out with fellow Super League strugglers and the top Championship clubs in the middle eight for four places in next season's top flight.
"It's a unique thing so while I've just dropped in, everyone is in the same boat," said Smith.
"I'm not frightened by the new structure but probably encouraged that we have a second chance."
Smith was heartened by some aspects of Wakefield's performance during his watching brief against the Rhinos at Belle Vue, but admitted he needs to get to work quickly.
"It was true to form for Wakefield in the last two or three months," he said. "It wasn't too much different to what was expected.
"There's a lot of work to be done but there's some things I can see that are easy to identify, not so hard to practice and most times are things you can get a pretty quick result from.
"It's still very difficult to get right in the game under pressure and fatigue and that's why footy, or rugby as I should learn to say again, is a tough game for tough people."
The damage was done during a 19-minute period at the start of the second half in which Leeds ran in seven tries.
Stand-in full-back Liam Sutcliffe ended the match with a hat-trick, while Ash Handley and Brad Singleton each helped themselves to two tries and Rob Burrow, Danny McGuire, Carl Ablett and Jimmy Keinhorst all crossed once.
The win meant Leeds leapfrogged St Helens back into top spot but Brian McDermott, who played under Smith at Bradford in the mid-1990s, was critical of his side's display.
"I don't think we were great in the first 40 minutes - our game management at times was terrible and our kicking game at times wasn't great," the Rhinos head coach said.
"Some of our decisions to pass almost look a bit disrespectful to the opposition. I thought we were a bit silly in the first half and it didn't need to look like that."