Wakefield Trinity have suffered a serious blow to their chances of winning the opening game of the Magic Weekend, with their halfback Mason Lino being forced to miss the game with an injury he picked up in the captain’s run.
Both Trinity and Toulouse Olympique have named their matchday squads for today’s clash, which kicks off at 2.00pm at Newcastle’s St James’ Park.
Brad Walker will take over Lino’s role at scrum-half in a squad that is otherwise as expected, with Harry Bowes, Thomas Minns and new recruit Josh Bowden, who joined the club from Hull FC last week, being the players cut from the 21-man squad.
Toulouse coach Sylvain Houles will start the game with a halfback combination of Corey Norman and Tony Gigot, but with Lucas Albert on the bench.
He has left Paul Marcon, Anthony Marion, Eloi Pelissier and Ilias Bergal out of his matchday squad.
If Trinity can secure victory they will open us a six-point gap between them and Toulouse in twelfth place, while a Toulouse victory would put them only two points behind Trinity.
Today’s game will be refereed by Robert Hicks.
Trinity: 1 Max Jowitt, 36 Kyle Evans, 20 Jack Croft, 30 Corey Hall, 27 Lewis Murphy, 6 Jacob Miller, 21 Brad Walker, 10 Tinirau Arona, 9 Liam Hood, 15 Jai Whitbread, 13 Jay Pitts, 11 Matty Ashurst, 16 James Batchelor; Subs: 12 Kelepi Tanginoa, 14 Jordy Crowther, 34 Rob Butler, 35 David Fifita; Also in 21-man squad: 7 Mason Lino, 24 Harry Bowes, 31 Thomas Minns, 37 Josh Bowden
Olympique: 27 Olly Ashall-Bott, 2 Latrell Schaumkel, 24 Guy Armitage, 21 Chris Hankinson, 25 Matty Russell, 6 Corey Norman, 31 Tony Gigot (C), 8 Romain Navarrete, 28 Nathan Peats, 35 Daniel Alvaro, 16 Joe Bretherton, 12 Dominique Peyroux, 17 Joseph Paulo; Subs: 7 Lucas Albert, 10 Harrison Hansen, 23 Justin Sangare, 29 Lambert Belmas; Also in 21-man squad: 5 Paul Marcon, 13 Anthony Marion, 14 Eloi Pelissier, 20 Ilias Bergal.
Full reports from all this weekend’s Magic Weekend games will feature in the new issue of League Express, which will be available online from Sunday night and in the shops from Monday morning. Go here for information about subscriptions.
