Jukes: We shot ourselves in the foot

Leigh head coach Neil Jukes says his team’s inability to defend properly led to their eighth consecutive loss in all competitions on Saturday.

The Centurions trailed Wakefield 20-0 after just 14 minutes, before fighting back to lead 26-22 early in the second half.

More defensive lapses allowed Trinity to score 18 unanswered points to consign Leigh to yet another defeat.

Jukes said: “I wasn’t pleased with effort in the first eight minutes when all we did was defend. We were soft defensively but when we started to get a grip on things we gave ourselves a chance.

“We showed great character to fight back from 20-0 down and then be in front. But again it was a case of not having the quality to make the right calls at the right time.

“Some of the stuff we can fix up in training, but other mistakes are happening in games that I can’t control.

“I thought we challenged them with ball in hand, but we were guilty of shooting ourselves in the foot defensively.

“These are the fine margins we are dealing with at this level and some of the 50-50s went against us.”