Daryl Powell was satisfied with Wakefield Trinity's run-out at Leeds Rhinos after they were pipped at Headingley. George Brown's late try saw Wakefield slip to a 18-16 reverse having come from 12-0 down at half-time.

Wakefield took time to get going against a strong Leeds starting line-up but did have some positive moments in and amongst. Noah Booth, Seth Nikotemo and Dom Sinfield were all on the scoresheet as Powell got a chance to case his eye over some new recruits.

“I am pretty pleased with three things," Powell said. "The young players and getting a look at them, we got a look at ourselves and some of the things we need to perhaps work on a little bit more than we thought and we got a really good look at Leeds. It couldn’t have been any better, from all those perspectives.”

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Powell added: “I thought we started pretty poorly and Leeds were pretty good physically in the first half. There were a couple of reasons for that - they had their starting pack out there and we had a pretty strongish team from the start, but I don’t think we handled it well. The second half, I was pretty pleased. I thought the young players did well and we tidied up a bit after half-time.”

Powell was particularly impressed with the performance of new centre Cam Scott.

"I though Cam, in particular defensively down that left edge, it's a strong edge for Leeds and I thought he did some quality things in the first half. He was dangerous with the ball, he went away and was pulled back for the forward pass. So he was a standout.

"Seth (Nikotemo) was strong. I thought Cozza had a decent second stint. It was good, I just thought we had ten new players out there today and it was an interesting game, I enjoyed it. The game is never in a great place from a rugby league perspective, particularly when you've started as late as we have after the Grand Final. But it was the same last year, we didn't think it was a great time then and we got a lot out of it and I think it's exactly the same today."

Powell admitted that his side could match Leeds' speed and intensity early on but did think there was some mitigation.

"We've got a lot of boys to come into that and they (Leeds) have had a lot of time, with a new coach and the impact of how they were going to play, I thought their line speed and contact was really good.

"We were too slow in the first half and they were playing a couple of speeds quicker than us. But they've had more time with their pre-season than us and they had pretty much out there, I think there was only Lachie Miller and Gannon not playing. We'll be happy with where we're at."