Wakefield Trinity's Westerman makes the case for consistency

That’s the warning from off-season signing Joe Westerman as inconsistent Trinity look to bounce back from last week’s derby defeat at Castleford Tigers.

Westerman was among Wakefield’s try scorers in that game and has been in impressive form since joining them from Hull.

He insisted he is loving his time at his new club and feels Trinity will have a good season once they start playing to their potential throughout the whole of matches, not just for spells.

“I am really enjoying it,” said the 30-year-old loose-forward.

“It is close to home, a great set of lads and good club.

“We just have to keep working to get better and better.

“I think people have seen glimpses of what we can do, but a 40-minute performance isn’t good enough – it has to be 80.”

That point was hammered home at the Jungle where Trinity slumped 32-15 after leading 15-14 at the break.

They had two players sin-binned in separate second-half incidents and their discipline will have to be much better this week, but Westerman insisted playing with 12 men was no excuse.

“We started the second half not good enough at all,” he recalled. “We spoke about it at half-time, what we needed to do and we just didn’t do it.

“We didn’t complete our game plan the way we wanted to, our defence wasn’t good enough and there were too many penalties.

“If you give a team like Cas that position, that’s what happens.

“It’s a lesson, we have to play for 80 minutes.

“The good thing about rugby league is we are back on and we get chance to sort it out.”

Westerman felt Trinity were “pretty much faultless in the first half” at Castleford, but admitted they need to be more disciplined in every aspect than they were after the break.

“We conceded back-to-back penalties and then they scored,” he pointed out.

“It’s one of those things you see in rugby league – penalty, penalty, try.

“It is tough so we have got to be better and we will be this week.”

Alex Walker, Chris Green, Jordan Crowther and George King are all available to their first appearance of the season, following injury.

Youngster Connor Bailey is in contention and Danny Kirmond and Ryan Atkins could also feature, but Ryan Hampshire (broken jaw) and Joe Arundel (anterior cruciate ligament) drop out from last week’s team, along with James Batchelor.

Salford are without Krisnan Inu and Tyrone McCarthy from the team which lost to Leeds Rhinos last Saturday.

Dan Sarginson could return from injury and Lee Mossop, Greg Burke, James Greenwood, Josh Johnson and Elliot Kear are also vying for a place in the 17.

Salford Red Devils: from Atkin, Burke, Dudson, Evalds, Flanagan, Greenwood, Ikahihifo, Johnson, Jones, Kear, Lannon, Lolohea, Lussick, Mossop, Pauli, Roberts, Sarginson, Sio, Welham, Williams, Yates.

Wakefield Trinity: Walker, Johnstone, Tupou, Lyne, Miller, K Wood, Ashurst, Kirmond, Westerman, Pitts, Kopczak, Green, Tangata, Crowther, Jowitt, King, J Wood, Atkins, Bailey, Tanginoa, Navarrete.

Referee: Liam Moore (Wigan).

Kick-off: Tomorrow, 3pm.