Trinity facing the weight of expectation
WAKEFIELD coach Chris Chester admits he is having to deal with raised expectations after finding his side cast in the unfamiliar role of favourites.
Trinity, who finished bottom of the pile in 2015, only narrowly missed out on the Betfred Super League semifinals in 2017 and got the new season off to a tremendous start with a 28-6 win at Hull KR last Friday.
They lost both their opening two fixtures last year but are strongly fancied to make it two wins in a row when they host Salford tonight and Chester is delighted his side are now seen as genuine challengers.
“We’ve changed that perception and now we’ve got a difficult task of managing that expectation,” Chester said.
“We’ve been favourites the last couple of games and it’s all relatively new to us.
“But we’re enjoying the respect we’ve been given from opposition teams, it’s certainly a nicer position to be in than it was 12 months ago and we’d like to go two from two.
“But no one is getting carried away. The season isn’t won in the first round but we want to try and get four wins from our first five games. If we do that, it sets us up really nicely.
“The start is really important. We don’t want to chase our tails. We had to do it the hard way last year.
“We’ve just got to make sure we’re not complacent, we want to make this place a fortress.”
Salford will be looking to bounce back from their opening-round 40-12 defeat by Wigan and Chester believes they are an underrated team. ■■The Rugby Football League has decided on the next England coach, who now looks certain to lead his team into a Test match in Denver in June.
RFL rugby director Kevin Sinfield has completed his review into the 2017 World Cup and Press Association Sport understands his recommendations on the position of head coach and the rest of the backroom staff have been approved.
It is not clear whether the RFL has managed to retain the services of veteran Australian coach Wayne Bennett or moved on to a successor but an announcement is expected within a fortnight.
Bennett’s two-year contract ran out at the end of December’s World Cup final, in which England went down 6-0 to Australia in Brisbane.
The RFL’s interim chief executive Ralph Rimmer recently announced that the new head coach would be appointed on a four-year contract to take in the 2021 World Cup.
Bennett, whose day job is being head coach of Brisbane Broncos, will be 71 by the time of the next World Cup.
Meanwhile, Press Association Sport understands the proposed Test match between England and New Zealand in Denver, Colorado has been given the green light.