Wakefield Trinity coach Chris Chester believes that three wins from the club’s final five league games will be enough to secure a top-four finish ahead of the Super 8s as they head to Hull tonight.
Trinity are seeking an immediate response from last week’s disappointing Challenge Cup exit at the hands of Salford, as they head to the KCOM Stadium in a mouthwatering fourth-versus-fifth clash tonight.
And Chester believes that three wins before the split will give Wakefield enough to finish fourth or higher – meaning the added caveat of an extra home game in the Super 8s.
He told TotalRL: “We’ve spoken about finishing in the four. Three wins from five is enough to get us in there. Until we do that, then we can reassess where we want to go but we’ve got some winnable games and three fixtures at home, and it’s important we get back to how we were playing a few weeks ago.
“We’re looking forward to it; the guys are looking forward to getting out there and put a few wrongs right on Friday night.
“Three wins will be enough to get us in that top four for the split, two wins will be enough for the top six. It’s the best side we’ve had for a while here at Wakefield and we’re looking forward to Friday and trying to put in a big performance.”
Chester’s side played eight days ago while Hull were made to endure an energy-sapping afternoon as recently as Sunday against Castleford: and Chester is hopeful that could give Trinity a slight advantage.
“I’d like to think so,” he said.
“Especially with the heat on Sunday and they won’t have been able to do a great deal of training, it’s just about managing the training loads on those short turnarounds.
“But they’re peaking at the right time; they had a blip halfway through the year and they’ve come through that now. Fonua and Talanoa have made a massive difference and they’ll be expected to get a win. We’ve just got to match up to them as we feel we’ve got a team who can do the job.”
Trinity will be without Dean Hadley – who is ineligible – and Danny Kirmond, who has been ruled out for four to six weeks. However, Ben Jones-Bishop, Tinirau Arona, James Batchelor and Bill Tupou will all come back in.
