Wakefield Trinity 'heavily motivated' for big rematch with Featherstone Rovers

Round two in the Betfred Championship gives Trinity a chance to make amends for the one defeat on their records so far this season when they suffered an extra-time loss to Rovers in the Challenge Cup – and the players are keen to right some wrongs.

"I don’t think they will need any motivation for that – that’ll be pretty clear,” said head coach Powell.

"We just need to go and play our game and do what we do.

"We’re working hard tidying up some of the areas we think we can be better at, individually and collectively.

"We’ll take that with us and the boys will be pretty heavily motivated for the game. But that doesn’t do it by itself, you’ve got to go and play well and we know it will be another tough game.”

On the way the season has gone so far, Powell added: “The start gave us a chance to put some combinations in place, which have grown and developed.

"But we won one game by over 100 points and that’s never going to be great for a team.

"Probably that’s what got us as much as anything against Featherstone. I said to the boys afterwards that ‘if you didn’t know what it was about you do now’.

"We’ve had our noses smacked and we’ve had to respond and I think the boys did that well. It’s about creating some consistency now and really setting our standards both with and without the ball.”

Wakefield’s fixture against Doncaster on Sunday, April 7, meanwhile, will now take place at the Eco-Power Stadium.

Originally scheduled to take place at Trinity’s DIY Kitchens Stadium, a critical water supply issue means essential work needs to be carried out and potentially could cause heavy disruption around the stadium resulting in both clubs agreeing to switch the location.

The club are working closely with Morgan Sindall to find a solution to the problem and have apologised to fans for the inconvenience and problems this change may cause.

The water issue originally occurred during the pre-season game with Wigan and despite the club referring the matter to the building contractors Morgan Sindall, who thought a solution had been found, the same issue then caused disruption at the Bradford game.

Due to water pressure issues, the Neil Fox MBE Stand ran out of water during the first half. This meant supporters had no running water from half-time onwards affecting toilet facilities and the players and officials ability to shower after the game.

Extensive building work may need to be carried out around the ground to ensure the water issue is solved and the Neil Fox MBE Stand can be serviced properly for gamedays going forward.

The extent of this is still unknown and the potential disruption contributed to the decision to reverse the fixture.