Wakefield Trinity to field strongest-available side in pre-season meeting with Dewsbury Rams

Eddie Battye, pictured on the attack against Leeds Rhinos, has a calf strain and is unlikely to feature this weekend. Picture by Jonathan Gawthorpe.

The game, behind closed doors at Mobile Rocket Stadium, Belle Vue, is Trinity’s only full-scale warm-up before their Betfred Super League round one derby with Leeds Rhinos at Emerald Headingley 13 days later.

Trinity have not played for four months, but have been in training since Christmas and coach Chris Chester said they are itching for a hit-out.

“The plan for us is to go 50-60 minutes with the full-strength team and make sure we get minutes into the guys we need to get minutes into and then for the last 20 minutes just bring everybody off and throw the kids in,” he confirmed.

“It is a good opportunity for those fringe guys and those players who are on the edges to put their front foot forward.

“It is our only friendly; we’ve had a couple of really tough contact sessions in-house over the last couple of weeks, when we’ve had the referees down and we are looking forward to getting going again and getting back to some sort of normality.”

Chester said Trinity have, so far, come through pre-season unscathed by Covid and with a near clean bill of health, but anyone not fully fit won’t be risked.

“We are fine,” he said.

“The lads are getting tested twice a week and everything’s coming back negative, so it’s all good at the minute.

“We are not far off [fully-fit].

“We have been training on a 4g and we’ve got a few little niggles, soft tissue issues and guys who have little calf strains or hamstring strains.

“They won’t play this weekend.

“It is not worth the risk - people like Matty Ashurst, who has got a tight calf, Eddie Battye has a tight calf and Kyle Wood probably won’t play this week.

“Barring those guys, we have pretty much got a clean bill of health.”

Chester is also keen to see how some young players fare against strong Betfred Championship opposition.

He said: “We’ve got some good young kids who have come through and been really good in pre-season and some of them are going to get an opportunity this weekend.

“We’ve got players like Dane Windrow, Sam Eseh and Ollie Greensmith, who have been training really well.”