Wakefield Trinity toon up for Giants with Newcastle Thunder showdown

Tom Johnstone in action against Hull FC's Danny Houghton.

Trinity beat Hull 30-24 in their second pre-season game last Sunday, but Chester felt they let themselves down in certain areas.

“We leaked 16 points in the first half and that’s not good enough,” he warned.

“We have learned a few lessons and we showed if we control the ball we will be a very very hard team to beat.

“We showed at the back end of the first half and late in the second we are a real threat with the ball, but I was disappointed with the ease they scored a couple of their tries.

“It’s all fixable and we’re hoping to get that right [today] and against Huddersfield on Tuesday.”

Big guns Tom Johnstone and Pauli Pauli are both included in Trinity’s squad for this afternoon. Chris Annakin, Jordan Crowther, Keegan Hirst, Justin Horo, Max Jowitt, Jordan Baldwinson and Ben Reynolds will also back up from last Sunday.

“There’ll be limited game time for the majority of those guys with a view to them playing on Tuesday,” Chester – whose side travelled to the north east on Thursday – confirmed.

“We’ve had a couple of niggles through pre-season and some players have missed a bit of it and we need to get some minutes under their belt. Some spots are up for grabs on Tuesday with a view to round one against London.”

Academy players on duty today include Jack Croft and Yusuf Aydin who signed first team contracts last year.

Chester added: “There’s a lot of good kids in the team.

“Jack and Yusuf are two I am certainly looking forward to seeing.

“They were very impressive last year in the under-19s and they are maturing into two really good players.

“I am looking forward to seeing what they do over the next couple of years.

“They’ve not started with us yet because they are still studying, but they’ll join us full-time when they’ve finished.”

Wakefield Trinity (at Newcastle): from Annakin, Ashen, Aydin, Bailey, Baldwinson, Barcoe, Croft, Crowther, Dodd, Greensmith, Gwaze, Hirst, Hooley, Hughes, Horo, Johnstone, Jones, Jowitt, Kershaw, Pauli, Reynolds, Teale, Van Der Waal, Wray, Wood.

Kick-off: Today, 2pm.