Wakefield Trinity boss Daryl Powell reveals lone pre-season injury ahead of Festive Challenge v Leeds Rhinos
Wakefield Trinity are in “a good place” ahead of Friday’s pre-season opener at Leeds Rhinos, according to coach Daryl Powell.
He has named a 22-man squad for Boxing Day’s Wetherby Whaler Festive Challenge - including a mixture of new signings, senior players and young rookies - and insisted he is excited to see how they go. “Like everyone would say, we have worked hard in pre-season,” Powell said.
“I think we are in a good place. Like Leeds, we have got a lot of players who aren’t playing, but it’s more about the ones who are. We are starting reasonably strong in the pack and probably even more so in the backs and then it’s young players getting an opportunity, similar to what Leeds will be doing.
“It should be a good game. We have got a lot of young players and Leeds have as well so it should be an exciting game to see the future a little bit, but with both teams there’s a bit of the very near future in the quality of the sides.”
Trinity returned to training last month and reflecting on pre-season so far, Powell said: “It has been really good. It’s short this time, 10 weeks and this game comes smack bang in the middle of pre-season. Leeds have just come back from camp and we go to Tenerife on January 3.
“It gives you a look at some of the potential and it also sort of shows you how pre-season has gone. It’s not a good time, straight after Christmas, but it does give you a look at how you think things have gone from a fitness and attitude perspective, which I think both teams will have done well.”
Though several first team players won’t be risked this week, the coach confirmed Trinity have close to a clean bill of health. “Mason Lino is the only one at the moment,” he revealed. “He is running, but he’s not in team training. He has had a scaphoid operation so he is coming back from that.
“Everybody else is all right, they have trained well. We’ve got a few international players who came back later, Ty [Tyson Smoothy] was in the NRL Grand Final and Jake Trueman and Max Jowitt I will save for the Hull KR game [on January 25], but there’s nothing really major, just Mason.”