Wakefield Trinity Wildcats coach James Webster has confirmed that the club could welcome back some serious experience ahead of their Challenge Cup showdown against Leigh Centurions this Sunday.
The Wildcats have been decimated by injuries in 2015, but the likes of captain Danny Kirmond and strike centre Dean Collis could return for the match – as well as one or two other key members of Webster’s squad, too.
“We’ve got a couple of blokes out but we’ve got a couple coming back, which is fantastic for us ahead of the game,” Webster said.
“We’re hoping to have Dean Collis, Danny Kirmond, Ali Lauitiiti and Lopini Paea all back – and there might be one other somewhere. We won’t know for sure until we got through training on Saturday.”
Webster also believes that the Wildcats – who have lost their last 11 league games in succession – are not the favourites heading into the tie against a Leigh side yet to taste defeat so far in 2015.
“I don’t think we’re the favourites with the bookies. I wouldn’t say we’re favourites; Leigh have got a couple of internationals with them, seem to have a huge amount of money to spend on their squad and they’ve won a huge amount of games.
“I think it’ll be a good, close, traditional Challenge Cup tie.
“They’re strong and aggressive, and they’ve got two really good half-backs with some speed in there at fullback, too. There’s not too many weak links in their team; they showed against Salford what they can do and they’ll be coming here expecting to win.
“Turning it into a war helps them more than us; they know one way, which is to be aggressive – but they’re not scared to play a bit either. We need to worry about ourselves a bit more.”
