Pre-season friendly round-up: Wakefield Trinity and Bradford Bulls impress

Seven pre-season friendlies took place today including one Super League side.

So here is a round up of today’s action.

Wakefield Trinity 28-16 Halifax Panthers

Wakefield Trinity hosted Halifax Panthers this afternoon in ex-Hull FC centre Reece Lyne’s testimonial.

Mark Applegarth’s side didn’t take long to start celebrating Lyne in style as Jay Pitts opened the scoring within minutes of kick-off. As he did against Leeds Rhinos on Boxing Day, Pitts hit a good line and carved through to score with Mason Lino making it 6-0.

The man who everyone wanted to score nearly did as the game entered its second quarter.

As a kick bounced around in the Halifax in goal, Lyne came close to touching down before the Panthers beat him to it.

However, Lineham was on hand to ensure that Lyne did get a try on his special day as his selfless pass gave Lyne his special moment as Trinity made it 12-0.

Following in the footsteps of Pitts earlier in the game, a try scorer from Boxing Day got over for a try today as substitute Eddie Battye came on to score Wakefield’s third.

That left it at 18-0 at the break. At the interval Wakefield made wholesale changes and within three minutes a Wakefield error was punished with the Panthers breaking from the error before teeing up Louis Jouffret.

After encouraging signs from the Panthers, Wakefield scored again in the 56th minute. A high kick was taken by Lee Kershaw who set up Morgan Smith to score on his second appearance for the club: 22-4.

Wakefield scored their fifth and final try of the game and a second from Smith. Mason Lino broke through and after some offloads Smith crossed.

In the final 10 minutes, Halifax crossed for two tries with former Warrington Wolves man Tom Inman getting over for a debut try followed by a debut try for Jake Maizen.

Dewsbury Rams 16-34 Bradford Bulls

There is plenty of excitement around Bradford Bulls at present after they have made some major signings ahead of the 2023 season dreaming of Super League promotion.

One of their biggest signings debuted today in the shape of Jack Walker at fullback in the number 31 shirt as the Bulls took on Dewsbury Rams away.

After building pressure, Brad Foster opened the scoring rampaging through to score in the 11th minute.

Tom Holmes, surprisingly in the number one shirt instead of Walker but playing in the halves, crafted a try for Kieran Gill with a well weighted grubber allowing Gill to score.

To Dewsbury’s credit, they did pull a try back through Lewis Collinson who broke through to score.

But soon Jack Walker crowned his debut with a try. In the 37th minute, Gill made a break and Walker, as he often did in a Leeds Rhinos shirt, popped up on his shoulder to race away from 40 metres out to score.

Then, just before halftime, Bradford made it 24-6 at the break when Myler Lawford dropped the shoulder after a scrum to carve his way through.

Another debutant Joe Arundel got the first try of the second half as Jordan Lilley, who started at hooker, grubered through for Arundel to score on his second debut for the club after leaving Halifax Panthers as the former Castleford Tigers man seems to enjoy his return.

After this Lilley went from provider to scorer as he darted through from a superb scrum move.

In the last five minutes Dewsbury crossed for a pair of tries as Sam Day and Jimmy Beckett crossed.

Widnes Vikings 46-6 Rochdale Hornets

Widnes ran in eight tries to defeat Rochdale today. Edge scored a hat-trick and kicked five goals scoring 22 points. Former St Helens man Kyle Amor and former Hull FC man Jordan Johnstone debuted.

Doncaster 12-28 York

York scored 20 unanswered points in the second half to turn a 12-8 deficit into a 28-12 win ahead of the 2023 season.

Barrow Raiders 52-24 North Wales Crusaders

Barrow ran in nine tries to defeat North Wales Crusaders in a crushing win over the Crusaders to begin 2023.

Swinton Lions 44-10 Midlands Hurricanes

After earning promotion to the Championship, the Lions defeated their former League 1 rivals 44-10 to kick start 2023.

Whitehaven 22-6 Workington Town

Whitehaven won the Ike Southward Memorial Trophy in a physical affair.