Wakefield Trinity boss explains form surge ahead of Leeds Rhinos rematch

Trinity suffered 10 successive defeats before clawing their way to an 18-14 victory over Huddersfield Giants on Thursday last week.

They followed up by thumping Hull KR 48-18 on Sunday and proved that was no fluke with a 30-6 defeat of Leeds two days ago.

The three wins came after an article in a national newspaper alleged Chester was facing a revolt from unhappy players.

Chester feels the story - which he says is untrue - “has probably given these guys some motivation”, but insisted the big difference has been having a full squad fit and available for training and matches.

“I think [Thursday’s game] proved the guys are growing and there’s a lot of togetherness within the group and the players want to play for each other and the coach and the club,” Chester said.

But he stressed: “It is no coincidence we are playing our best footy when we’ve got our best people out on the pitch.

“We’ve gone games when we’ve been without Jacob Miller, Dave Fifita, Tinirau Arona - important players for the team and the club.

“We have had two really good weeks of training and [earlier in the season] there’s been times when we’ve only had 14 or 15 players on the training field.

“You are having to make things up because you are preparing for a team on a Tuesday and then on a Thursday - team run day before a Friday game - you find out you’ve got to stand down four or five players through track and trace or positive tests.

“That’s the frustrating part from my end, people don’t understand what this group have gone through to make sure they fulfil every single fixture this year - or try to.

“There’s been times when we’ve had nine stood down or 11, but the players were all together and united and said we want to finish the season.

“That is still the players’ mindset now.”

Chester reckons encouraging his team to express themselves - and play with smiles on faces - has also paid off.

“These guys have gone through the mill and when your confidence is down you are looking at what you are doing in training, but the best weeks have been the last two when we’ve had everybody back in training,” he said.

“It is amazing what one win does to a group’s confidence. You saw that [on Thursday], the free-flowing rugby we played.

“They have responded really well. The key message is to go out and play - do everything with energy and with a smile on our face.”

Chester will make changes to his winning side for tomorrow’s Rhinos rematch, with full-back Max Jowitt - who scored a hat-trick on Thursday - dropping out, along with centres Reece Lyne and Bill Tupou and winger Tom Johnstone.

Youngsters Jack Croft, Lee Kershaw, Yusuf Aydin, Connor Bailey and Harry Bowes are all in contention.

“I want to try and give everybody a game before the end of the year,” Chester explained.

“If the rumours are right and we will potentially be finishing the season this weekend, it is important we give everybody a run out on Sunday.”

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