Wakefield Trinity Chairman reacts to encouraging win over Leeds Rhinos

Wakefield Trinity yesterday defeated Leeds Rhinos at Headingley in a festive friendly.

They trailed 20-14 in the second half but late tries saw Mark Applegarth’s side pick up an impressive win showing the encouraging signs at Belle Vue as they prepare for a new era with a redeveloped stadium and a new coach as well as new signings like Morgan Smith, Renouf Atoni, Kevin Proctor and Samisoni Langi.

The win yesterday came in a good close game for a friendly too. Trinity took an 8-0 lead thanks to tries from Jay Pitts and Reece Lyne.

Leeds themselves scored back-to-back tries with James McDonnell grounding a chip over the top from Richie Myler before a lovely move saw Liam Tindall score.

But before the break, an Eddie Battye score saw Wakefield take the lead again.

However, their lead didn’t last long as Morgan Gannon scored from a Kruise Leeming 40/20 before Leeming himself scored after a break from Leon Ruan.

But a flurry of Wakefield tries from Atoni, Lee Kershaw (x2) Jordy Crowther and Lewis Murphy saw them storm to victory.

After the game Wakefield Chairman took to Twitter in reaction to the game as well as the strong following Wakefield took to Headingley.

He said: “Just what I thought. Great to see everyone and to get 2023 going. Very early days but always good to win.”