Wakefield in talks with off-contract players from both hemispheres, reveals Chester

Wakefield head coach Chris Chester has revealed he is in talks with off-contract players from both in the UK and down under.

With just five games of the regular season left to play, attention is beginning to turn to next year and potential recruitment.

Rumours have been circulating that Trinity are chasing former player Sam Williams and while Chester said no deal has been agreed, he refused to rule out a move for the Canberra halfback.

“I’ve spoken to Sammy, I’ve kept in contact with Sammy Williams,” said Chester. “There’s certainly no deal done as yet.

“I’ve been speaking to a number of players that are off contract over here and those that are off-contract in the NRL.

“A lot will go down to the budget side of things. We still don’t know where we’re at budget-wise with regards to the club.”

“But it’s a position we feel we need to strengthen sooner rather than later and that’s the priority at the minute. But no deal’s been done with Sam Williams or any other player at this moment in time.”

Trinity face St Helens again this week, just six days after narrowly losing to them 20-16.

It was a performance Chester was extremely pleased with and is aiming to replicate this Thursday, after a week free of Covid-19 drama.

“We’ve come through all clear, so no positive tests this week. It’s pretty much the same 19/20 we announced last week with the exception that we’ve brought Chris Green into the squad.

“So it’s positive news and we’ve managed to get two decent sessions in this week with no interruptions.

“I thought we showed some positive signs last week. There were some real positive moves forward and I thought for large parts of the game, we were pretty good.

“I wasn’t frustrated with the result, I’m more frustrated that we can’t do that consistently, week-in, week-out. That’s been the biggest issue for us for a number of years and is certainly something we’re trying to address now.

“But I thought there were some really good signs. We attacked really good, we toughed it out when we needed to tough it out, certainly in the middle third.

“I think we got held up over the line two, maybe three times, and if we finish those tries then maybe it could have been a different story.

“But certainly more positives from last week than any other week. It’s probably the best performance we’ve had since lockdown.”