Wakefield Trinity star rues “opportunity missed” as club crash out of Challenge Cup

Wakefield Trinity saw their hopes of returning to Wembley dashed after a 20-12 loss to Leigh Leopards and one of their star man has had his say.

After their season in the Championship, Wakefield have been back in Super League in 2025 with a vengeance and Daryl Powell’s side have upset the odds on a number of occasions, although curiously they’ve not managed to win at home.

That trend continued against Leigh, who they had beaten away from home 40-14 last week, as the Leopards pounced on Trinity errors to progress to the semi-finals.

Wakefield had been dreaming of returning to Wembley after winning the 1895 Cup at the national stadium there last year, however, it wasn’t to be.

One of their star man so far this year wasn’t at the club for last year’s Wembley visit and he’s ruled the Challenge Cup exit as an “opportunity missed”.

Wakefield Trinity star rues “opportunity missed” as club crash out of Challenge Cup

FULL TIME: Wakefield Trinity 12-20 Leigh Leopards

Trin drop out of the Betfred Challenge Cup.#UpTheTrin pic.twitter.com/TjnwbuWfgv

— Wakefield Trinity (@WTrinityRL) April 4, 2025

Mike McMeeken was signed by Trinity on a four-year deal alongside fellow former Catalans man Tom Johnstone and the pair have been among this year’s standouts, particularly McMeeken.

The forward claimed the Man of the Match award, something he questioned when speaking post-match on Super League+.

“I’m not sure why I’ve got this,” he gestured to the medal as he began his assessment of the game.

“I’m pretty disappointed, it’s obviously an opportunity missed to go into the semi-final, but I think rightfully so, Leigh went through and they were the better team on the night.”

McMeeken was also asked about the nature of the defeats having lost a number of narrow games that have swung on key moments.

He explained: “That’s obviously what we want to be doing and we want to be involved in these big games and that’s where we are at the moment.

“We’re close and in the league, we could have picked up a couple more points, but we’re pretty happy with how the league is going but like I said, it’s an opportunity we missed tonight.”

Moving the focus back to Super League and Trinity travel to St Helens to face a side who beat them at home in Round Two and McMeeken is more than aware of the challenge his side will face.

He stated: “It was a tough game when they came here a few weeks ago, so we’re pretty sure there’s going to be another tough game on Friday night. We’re going to look over this game, review it and then go again.”