Tight fight as players take flight

Wakefield captain Willie Poching looks ahead to a tense end of season and at two key issues he thinks would benefit the game.

It has been a long season but there is no better motivation than playing for survival.

We're still a point ahead of Huddersfield, we've looked at our schedule and we're still on target for our goal - staying up.

We have fought hard every week for 23 games and now we've got to stick it out for another five.

  Head-to-head: Run-in

Wakefield Trinity

Salford (home)

Hull (home)

Halifax (away)

Huddersfield (home)

Salford (away)

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Huddersfield

Halifax (away)

London (away)

Hull (home)

Wakefield (away)

London (home)

But we cannot get ahead of ourselves and look at the penultimate game against Huddersfied.

The more points we get on the board now, the less pressure we'll have going into that game.

Pressure? Well it's tough at the top but it's even tougher at the bottom.

Other guys are playing for a position in the table but we're playing for the future of the club and the livelihood of players.

We're positive as a team and we know we're still capable of beating anyone - apart from the administrators.

The club is apparently going to appeal against the two points we had docked for the salary cap issue from last season.

As players that is something that is out of our hands but it is frustrating getting hit three-quarters of the way through the season.

At least if the RFL had done it at the start of the season we would have known what we were up against, but that's just the latest example of muddled thinking - we still don't know if anyone is actually going down!

It's good for the game that Widnes are coming up and their promotion gives teams in the Northern Ford Premiership a lot of hope, but we need to know if and how many teams are going up and down at the start of the season.

The tide has turned and people are kicking up a stink - I can't see why

Willie Poching

Everyone knows what will happen to the top five but not to the bottom one, and down at the bottom we are dealing with livelihoods.

Rugby league is all I've ever done and it's all I've ever known and I'm confident about the future of the sport.

But hopefully the recent turmoil with union will be a bit of a wake-up call and things like this will change in time.

League has been poaching for years and union never complained. Now the tide has turned and people are kicking up a stink - I can't see why.

I say good luck to the guys who change and I appreciate that there's more to it than money.

Henry Paul has already stated that he wants to play international rugby for England and international rugby is something we need more of in league.

Clubs sign players because of who they are only to stop them going off and playing international rugby - I can't see how that's right.

In the World Cup you get teams like the Lebanon and Russia who after they're out are told to go away and come back in four years time - they need more of an incentive.

The Lebanon and the Cook Islands will be back in 2004

At international level more has to be done outside of Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand in places like France, South Africa and the island nations in the Pacific.

Players also need more of a voice.

At a domestic level I would like to see a committee with a player from every club meeting each month and then going to the RFL with their views.

We have a union but we don't really see them and we don't get asked how we feel.

A committee would give players a voice across the board, all the way up from the academy to the senior players.

But I suppose those are all things for another day.

For now survival is all that matters.

We've got blokes who will never give up, we've got our noses in front and Huddersfield are the ones tacking us - we've just got to stay ahead.