Wakefield Trinity to make five signings as World Cup recruits likely

Wakefield Trinity chairman John Minards has revealed that recruitment and retention at the club is ongoing ahead of a big rebuild.

The West Yorkshire club announced the appointment of Mark Applegarth as their new head coach for 2023 following the departure of Willie Poching.

And, now chairman Minards has revealed that the club could look towards the World Cup in order to bring some quota players in following the departures of Jacob Miller, David Fifita and Tinirau Arona as well as the retirement of Bill Tupou.

“We’ve still got may talented players on our books, obviously we are identifying gaps which we feel we can strengthen,” Minards said at the unveiling of Applegarth as the new head coach.

“It’s about retention and recruitment. We are hopeful there will be a number of those as well as Jai Whitbread. We don’t have many others.

“We have plenty of firepower to go out and recruit and that has been continuous. There are ongoing conversations with outside recruits

“There is a World Cup this year, we don’t have to tie everything up this side of the World Cup. There are quota spots there. There will be a mix of players we bring in and then some we will bring from our youth.”

Minards also revealed that the number if likely to be counted on one hand.

“It will be about five. We have already signed players through the course of this year. There is Josh Bowden, Rob Butler and Jorge Taufua and they are three players who we had already earmarked for next year.”

There haven’t been many players linked with a move to Belle Vue just yet, though sacked NRL star Kevin Proctor was one of those earlier in the season only for the club to distance themselves from a potential deal.