No regrets from Luke Gale as Wakefield Trinity's ex-Leeds Rhinos man set for testimonial v Castleford Tigers
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Gale retired at the end of last season and is now on Wakefield Trinity’s coaching staff, but has been named in their squad to face visitors Castleford Tigers in his testimonial game (8pm). “I’m looking forward to it,” Gale said. “There’ll be a little cameo role for me for maybe 15-20 minutes at the end. There was an option to carry on playing this year, but I decided to take up a coaching role, which I am loving. That was the right decision, there’s no regrets about retiring. I do half my time with the first team and then head-coach of the academy which I am really enjoying and is really rewarding as well.”
Trinity, who returned from a warm weather training on Monday, plan to field a strong squad for the opening hour, then give some youngsters a go in the last quarter, along with Gale. He said: “I jumped in on the 13 v 13 stuff over in Tenerife, which got my eye in for this week. I’ll go from coach of the academy lads to teammate - instead of me telling them what to do, they might be giving me orders.”
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With bad weather in this country having disrupted both sides’ preparations, Gale insisted Friday’s derby is an important fixture, 22 days before Trinity’s Betfred Super League opener at Leeds Rhinos on Saturday, February 15. He stressed: “Both teams have kind of missed a pre-season game, so we want to get a fair bit out of it and so do Castleford.
“It is going to be good, it is interesting because we have got a new squad and so have they. We have got a lot of new players so we are kind of at the stage of getting to know what works best and the different variations, but training has been fantastic.
“We don’t have the biggest of squads and we’ve lost a couple through pre-season, which always happens, but hopefully we get them back towards round one and we are ready to go. [On Friday] we are going to see what we need to fix up and what we are doing well. It is going to be a good test and it’s what’s needed at this stage of our preparation.”
Gale, 36, made his professional debut for Doncaster in 2007 and had spells with Harlequins RL and Bradford Bulls before joining Tigers in 2015. He was Man of Steel two years later and returned to home city club Leeds, where he came through the academy, in 2020.
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Stints with Hull FC and Keighley Cougars followed ahead of a move to Trinity two years ago, but he is best-known for his time at Tigers, particularly the 2017 season when they topped the table and were Grand Final runners-up.
“I had five great seasons there and played the best rugby of my career there,” Gale recalled. It was a great part of my career and we’ve got a lot of ties with Castleford with Powelly [coach Daryl Powell] and Shenny [assistant-boss Michael Shenton] having been there as well.
“Playing them in my testimonial is the best fit, is going to be great. I am expecting a bit of stick and a few songs from the Cas fans, but that’s all part of rugby league - I am looking forward to that, it should be good craic.”
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