Innes Senior ready to make a Super League impact at Wakefield Trinity following loan move from Huddersfield Giants

Twenty-year-old Innes Senior made his debut for Trinity in last weekend’s 36-24 Coral Challenge Cup sixth-round defeat by Catalans Dragons, on his home turf at Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium.

The on-loan Giants man impressed Trinity coach Chris Chester with his running and high work-rate and is expected to continue in the side for Sunday’s game against Warrington Wolves at HJ Stadium.

The loan deal suits both player and club, with Senior - who had not played since August 2 last year - keen for some game time and Trinity desperately short in the outside-backs.

“I’ve not been getting much game time at Giants with Darnell [McIntosh] and Jermaine [McGillvary] playing well on the wings,” Senior said of his situation at Huddersfield.

“As soon as I had the opportunity to come to Wakefield and play a few games I just thought I’d come and give it a go.

“I enjoyed my first game back and I am looking forward to the next few weeks too.

“I hadn’t played for about a year, since my last Super League game, so I was just really happy to get back out there.

“I thought I went pretty well and obviously the team’s performance was better than the week before so I was pretty happy coming away from it.”

Senior had only two training sessions with Trinity before the Cup tie, but stressed: “I’d been training for a month at the Giants and working on areas of my game so I didn’t really feel under-perpared.

“Everyone from Wakefield has been really welcoming and I thought we managed to link up quite well. I don’t think it really affected my game that much, which is good.”

The loan recruit played on Wakefield’s left, outside centre Bill Tupou.

“He had a really good game,” Senior said. “I thought he was our best player, he handled [Israel] Folau really well and kept him quiet all game.

“He is a good player to play alongside, he is confident in what he does and he makes me feel confident being outside him. I enjoyed that and hopefully we can continue that partnership.”

Ben Jones-Bishop could return from illness this weekend, but Tom Johnstone, Lee Kershaw and Joe Arundel are on the injured list and Reece Lyne has one game remaining of a two-match ban.

“I knew about the injury situation, they are very down on outside-backs,” Senior added. “I am not sure how long some of them are out for, but I am very happy to fill in while some of their top players are out.

“They have got some quality players out, but I will be happy to keep their seat warm for the next months.”

Beyond that, Senior said: “We’ll see what the situation is at both clubs.

“Giants might have had a few injuries and I might be called back, or some of Wakefield’s guys might not be back. As long as I am getting game time I will be happy to say, but we’ll just have to see what the situation is at the end of the month.”

Sunday is another huge challenge for Trinity who have suffered three successive defeats since returning from the coronavirus shutdown.

But last weekend was an improvement on the 58-0 drubbing a week earlier and Trinity battled to the final hooter, scoring 12 of their points in the last five minutes.

“I thought we dug in,” Senior said. “From what they’ve said about [the previous week] they were disappointed in their lack of energy and enthusiasm.

“I thought we brought that on Saturday and we weren’t too far off for much of that game, it was just a few tries from kicks so, if we manage to get them right, it could have gone either way. I don’t think we are far off and we will try and get the win against Warrington this week.”

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