Match preview: Leeds Rhinos vs Wakefield Trinity

It’s a Yorkshire derby on Friday night as Wakefield looks for their first win of the season against a Leeds Rhinos side who are without a win in five games.

The two sides met on the opening game of the season, Leeds ran out 28-22 winners with impressive teenager Jack Broadbent’s first-ever Super League try helping Leeds to their first and only win of the season to date.

Richard Agar’s side will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing result last time out against local side Huddersfield as they fell to defeat after a dramatic late drop goal from Lee Gaskell saw the Giants pick up their first Super League win of the season.

As for Wakefield, they were unlucky in their last match. They were undone late on by the quality of the Catalan Dragons. Trinity coach Chris Chester described the loss as “another disappointing loss for us, another game where we had a hell of a lot of effort, just a lack of quality”.

It’s fair to say that both sides will feel they have deserved to have more points on the board so far this campaign and will look to see that happen on Friday night at Emerald Headingley stadium.

Both sides have suffered with injuries during the first six games of this campaign, and the injury concerns aren’t getting any better for Trinity with the likes of Jacob Miller and Bill Tupou still unavailable whilst winger Tom Johnstone is set for an extended period on the sidelines after suffering a setback following a concussion- which occurred in Trinity defeat to Catalan dragons in the challenge cup last month.

As for Leeds, there has been positive news on the injury front with the announcement of the return of captain Luke Gale who is set to start on Friday night after recovering from a broken thumb. Agar was pleased to have his captain back available for selection whilst stating “He’s a welcome return; he’s our captain, he kicks the ball and touches the ball more than any other player we’ve got, so his influence back in the team has been immediate and given people some confidence around him”.

With both teams coming into the game in poor form, both sets of coaches will be eager to see a fast start from their respective sides and hope to get some points on the board to turn around what has been a disappointing start for both sides.

 

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