Wakefield Trinity on red alert for Bradford Bulls Cup clash

Bulls, of the Betfred Championship, shocked Leeds Rhinos last year and Wakefield coach Chris Chester is on high alert.

He has named a strong squad with Dave Fifita set to make his first appearance of the season and Danny Brough in contention to return from a foot injury suffered in Super League round one.

“We don’t have a game until Sunday next week and we want to try and get some confidence from this one,” Chester said.

“We saw first hand last year what Bradford could do in a one-off game, beating Leeds at Odsal, so we certainly won’t be taking them lightly.

“We will be treating them like we treat any other team and preparing like we are playing a Super League team.”

Bulls boss John Kear has twice won the Challenge Cup as a head coach, was in charge at Trinity from 2006-2011 and spent 2017 there as director of rugby, working alongside Chester, before joining Bradford.

“John’s a great fella, a good coach and he always gets his lads up for the Challenge Cup,” Chester warned.

“They will get the respect they deserve.”

Trinity are entering the Cup a round earlier than most of their top-flight rivals, having finished in Super League’s bottom four last year, but only four wins would take them to Wembley.

Chester said: “It’s luck of the draw - you’d like to fancy your chances against anybody at home in a one-off game.

“It’s just having that little bit of luck and making sure you perform well when you need to do.

“There’s only two competitions to play for and this is one of them.

“It’s knockout and we’ve just got to make sure we are in the hat on Monday for the next round.”

According to Chester, lessons have been learned from last week’s golden-point loss to Hull.

“We have had a discussion and video review at length on the things we didn’t do particularly well,” he revealed.

“We’ve also focused on the things we did do well, but we just can’t afford to keep giving teams a leg up like we are doing.

“The last three games we’ve given 17 yardage penalties away and that is a lot of cheap possession.

“We got ourselves back in the game against Hull, but after our second try we came up with a really poor error and Albert Kelly scored in the next set.

“We are putting ourselves in good positions, but just not able to sustain it for the long periods we’d like.

“In that respect it’s a little bit frustrating, but the signs are really positive.

“We were exceptional in the second half.”

Jowitt drops out of Trinity’s initial squad, making way for Brough’s return. Craig Kopczak, Josh Wood and Lee Kershaw are also in contention.

Bulls’ 21 includes Anthony England who joined them from Wakefield at the end of last season.

Wakefield Trinity: from Walker, Johnstone, Tupou, Lyne, Miller, Brough, Fifita, K Wood, Arona, Ashurst, Westerman, Pitts, Kopczak, Green, Crowther, King, J Wood, Kershaw, Atkins, Tanginoa, Navarrete.

Bradford Bulls: from Brown, Butterworth, Crossley, Dawson-Jones, Doyle, England, Flanagan, Foggin-Johnston, Gallagher, Hallas, Ho, Hodgson, Johnson, Lilley, Milnes, Nzoungou, Oakes, Pickersgill, Race, Rooks, Scurr.

Referee: Marcus Griffiths (Widnes).

Kick-off: Friday, 7.45pm.