Wakefield Trinity boss reveals injury to suspended ace, comments on Wigan Warriors bans, welcomes back key man
Suspended Wakefield Trinity forward Jazz Trevaga is facing a longer spell on the sidelines, coach Daryl Powell has revealed.
Tevaga picked up a two-match ban over an incident during last Sunday’s Betfred Challenge Cup quarter-final loss to Wigan Warriors. Tevaga kicked out at opponent Liam Marshall after his leg was trapped in a tackle.
Speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Friday) ahead of tomorrow’s home game against Bradford Bulls, Powell said: “The ban is what it is, he is going to be out for longer than that with the injury he sustained in the incident. That’s a four-six-week injury.
“The ban’s kind of irrelevant for Jazz now with that injury. Pittsy [Jay Pitts] has been doing an awesome job at 13 and he will continue to do that.”
Explaining the injury, Powell said: “He hyper-extended his knee. He had a scan and is in a brace at the moment. It might be four weeks, it might be six. We’ve got the Challenge Cup break, having lost last week, so hopefully it doesn’t have a big impact on Jazz’s season.”
Wigan’s Harry Smith was suspended for three games for shoving Tevaga as he was injured on the ground and teammate Sam Walters received a similar ban for butting Pitts. Neither incident was punished during the game and reflecting on the punishments handed out by the match review panel, Powell reflected: “I thought the Harry Smith one was harsh. The other one is an incident that should’ve been seen at the time.
“I’ve just got to move past that. That’s the way things are, sometimes things go your way. We will learn lessons from them as I’m sure the officials do. You don’t want to be missing things like that, you don’t want headbutts on the field.”
Isaiah Vagana has also dropped out of Trinity’s squad for tomorrow. “He played on last week, but had a bit of a shoulder problem and a bit of an ankle problem,” Powell said. “He has had scans, there’s nothing major in either of them, but he probably misses a couple of weeks to just get him sorted.
“He has played massive minutes and has been phenomenal, but it gives an opportunity for Matty Storton and Seth Nikotemo to play really well in the back-row. They are both excellent back-rowers so I am looking forward to seeing them both play. Isaiah is a big miss for us, but those guys minimise that miss with how good they are.
Another forward, Caius Faatili, is back in the squad and Powell enthused: “He is awesome. He had a bit of an injury, he was pretty keen to play last week, but I thought Tray Lolesio had been really good for us and deserved another go. While Caius was 85-90 per cent fit I thought it was the right thing to do.”
Wakefield Trinity: from Jowitt, Pratt, Scott, Hall, Johnstone, Trueman, Lino, McMeeken, Smoothy, Rodwell, Nikotemo, Storton, Pitts, Hamlin-Uele, Faatili, Smith, Sinfield, Myers, Rourke, Lolesio, Abraham.
Bradford Bulls: from Ackers, Aekins, Atkin, Bate, Chamberlain, Douglas, Fulton, Gardiner, Hallas, Leake, Lewis, Marsters, Mellor, Ormondroyd, Peposhi, Ruan, Ryan, Russell, Souter, Scurr, Wynne.
Referee: Liam Rush (Mirfield). Kick-off: Saturday, 3pm.