DARYL POWELL has challenged Oliver Pratt to earn a spot in the centres after giving him Wakefield Trinity’s number two shirt this season.
Pratt has been a regular for the past two seasons, scoring 19 tries in 34 games during a breakthrough 2024 campaign as Wakefield won a second-tier treble, then backing it up with 26 appearances and five tries as a Super League player.
Relegated from number three to 19 when Corey Hall and Cameron Scott arrived following promotion, Pratt has returned to a starting jersey – but surprisingly he was given a winger’s number.
The 21-year-old had only started two games there for Wakefield prior to this season, with the rest of his appearances at centre, but he returned to a wide berth for his first game of 2026 last Sunday, an 18-16 win at Huddersfield Giants.
And head coach Powell still believes that’s his best position, but says that he’ll have to prove he deserves to be there.
He explained: “We’ve got Corey Hall and Cam Scott who had unbelievable pre-seasons, and Pratty has had as well.
“Where the pieces will fall, I don’t know exactly at the moment. I just think Pratty is our next best and he can play on the wing.
“He knows exactly what he’s got to do and he’s working hard on it every day. He might play that well that he forces his way into the centre rather than the wing.
“At some point of the year he’ll play centre, and he might be so good I can’t move him anywhere else.
“At the moment if I’m picking our best backline he’s in it, it’s just (a matter of) where.
“He’s a young player finding his way. We want him to be a little bit better with his execution of catch and pass, which is pretty fundamental as a centre.
“He works unbelievably hard on his game. He’s going to be in and around (the team) somewhere, because he’s too good not to be.”