Wakefield Trinity's Jay Pitts looking forward to battle with Wigan Warriors' John Bateman

Trinity travel to St Helens this evening to take on last years table-toppers. Batemen enjoyed a successful five-year spell with Wigan before joining NRL side Canberra Raiders in 2019.

He spent two years in Australia, helping the Raiders reach a Grand Final, before returning to Wigan ahead of this season.

“He has been unbelievable, his track record tells you that,” said Trinity vice-captain Pitts.

“Going over to the NRL and doing what he does, he is a great player.

“To be able to come up against him means I will make sure I am on my game to the best of my ability to be able to compete with him. Hopefully, we can get one over on them.

“We have got to make sure we are on our game to be able to nullify him.”

Pitts missed Wakefield’s opening game of the season against Leeds through injury. He is fit again and head coach Chris Chester has confirmed will be in the matchday 17 for the round two clash.

He continued: “I was a bit gutted to miss last week.

“It is just one of those things, I wasn’t ready but I am really excited to get going this week.”

Pitts enjoyed a fine start to the 2020 season before the Covid-19 outbreak halted the Super League campaign.

After the season resumed in August, the Trinity forward was forced to isolate numerous times because of track and trace protocols before he received a positive test, which forced another bout of isolation.

He hopes to get a consistent run of games this year as Wakefield look to improve on their 10th-placed finish from 2020.

“I want a run of games. Last year started out ok for me, I thought I was playing some good rugby,” he said.

“Then all the Covid stuff, I was in one week and then had to isolate for 10 days. I had to isolate three times. I had a positive test as well and had to isolate 14 days on the back of that.

“I just want to keep some consistency, win some games and enjoy my rugby.”

Pitts is expecting an aggressive battle against Wigan tonight as Wakefield look to pick up their first win of the season. They lost to Leeds Rhinos 28-22 last weekend but the forward doesn’t feel the Belle Vue outfit are too far away from the standard they want to be at.

He said of Wigan: “They are really aggressive, have some good players and are strong. We are really going to have to be on our game to get a result.

“We had a look at the Leeds game and we weren’t far off.

“If we can fix up the little errors and the stuff that invited Leeds back into the game, then we have got a good shot.”

All round two fixtures are to be played in St Helens and broadcast on Sky Sports.