Wakefield Trinity have been urged to “be us and go and play our game” when they return to Betfred Super League against Leeds Rhinos on Saturday.
Trinity were relegated at the end of the 2023 season, but bounced back at the first attempt, winning last year’s Championship league leaders’ shield and Grand Final, as well as the 1895 Cup at Wembley.
Despite losing only two games all year – in the league at Toulouse Olympique and away to Featherstone Rovers in the Challenge Cup – coach Daryl Powell has rebuilt his squad in the off-season and insists his men are ready for a much tougher challenge in the elite competition.
The derby at AMT Headingley is a big opening test and the Wakefield Trinity boss said: “I watched the Leeds game and they are playing some good stuff.
“They’ve got some high-quality players, they’ve recruited well and they’ve got a new coach, who has been able to put a marker down in pre-season.
“He has had a long off-season and pre-season, after Leeds dipped out early last year, to instil his methods and his disciplined way of operating.
“It is a good opportunity for us, they will be confident and we’ve just got to be us and go and play our game.”
Powell feels his men are in good shape. “The signs are, we’ve looked pretty good,” he noted.
“We scored 30-odd points against Castleford [in Luke Gale’s testimonial] and a lot [in the Challenge Cup against Goole Vikings] last week so the fluency of our game is not going to be a problem.
“It’s going to be more managing difficult situations and being under pressure, the same as all new teams face – what does that look like, how do we dig ourselves out of tough situations and how do we deal with everything as a team?
“I think we’ve got a good, strong leadership base and we are ready for it. There are certain things I think as a team we have got big ticks on so far and other things I think we’ll have to learn on the hoof.”
Wakefield’s 2024 season didn’t finish until mid-October, leaving them behind their rivals in terms of preparation time and Powell stressed: “It has been a shortish one, but I think we’ve had a pretty good pre-season.
“On Boxing Day we played Leeds and they touched us up a little bit. It was a close-ish game on the face of it, but I thought Leeds were ready to play a Super League game at that point.
“That gave us some good things to work on and since then we’ve worked pretty hard and we feel good.
“We played Castleford and we were pretty good against them and I thought we looked good last week against Goole.
“Obviously it’s not Super League opposition, but you can only play what’s in front of you and we did it pretty well.
“But where we are now, we’ve got Super League slap bang in front and the different intensity that brings, so it is an interesting challenge for us.”
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Watch the Leeds Rhinos get their Super League campaign under way vs Wakefield Trinity, live on Sky Sports + at 3pm 📺 pic.twitter.com/uFKXMrckjG
— Sky Sports (@SkySports) February 15, 2025
