Richard Agar praises Kyle Wood

Wakefield coach Richard Agar has praised Kyle Wood for his performance off the bench against Widnes.

Wakefield came from behind in the second half to win 32-14 at the Stobart Stadium on Friday. 

One of Wood’s first touches of the ball was an attempted kick down field, charged down by Hep Cahill which led to Widnes’ final try of the game. But Agar was delighted to see Wood make up for his earlier mistake.

Agar said: “We wanted him to use his kicking game but his first kick got charged down against the run of play.

“But he didn’t go into his shell, and he kept kicking the ball into the corner when he got a chance. His service and running game from dummy half was good too.”

Agar denied he was concerned in the first half, despite his side losing both on the scoreboard in possession of the ball.

Widnes threatened to score on multiple occasions throughout the opening quarter, but could only post six points in that period. 

It was his side’s defensive performance which convinced Agar his team would come away with the win.

He said: “Everything was too quick for us, we played a lot of the first half on our own try line but I’m glad we held up through that.

“We weren’t massively worried about being behind because the game was always close. I certainly thought in the first half we had four clear cut chances we should have put away.

“The big message at half time was to get our line straighter, roll our sleeves up and work harder in the tackle, and try to put the emphasis on our half backs on our last tackle plays. That gave us enough field position to give our attack a bit of a chance.”