Wakefield Trinity 28-16 Halifax Panthers: Highlights and match report

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.

Highlights:

Lyne gets a try on his big day
All thanks to Tom Lineham after a looping ball over the top, Lyne scored to celebrate his big day.

More tries for Battye and Pitts
Two Wakefield forwards backed up their tries on Boxing Day with tries against Halifax today showing the calibre of Wakefield’s pack ahead of 2023.

Debut delight
Warrington Wolves youngster Tom Inman and World Cup star Jake Maizen both scored on their debuts for Halifax.