The beauty of the early stages of a sporting season is that in a matter of weeks a difficult start to the campaign can transform into a heartening one. Teams struggling at the foot of the table after two or three matches can find that a month later, they are moving towards the top of the table.
Naturally though, the opposite is also true and two teams meet on Sunday who, although sitting on the same number of points after five matches, have endured contrasting fortunes in recent weeks.
While Huddersfield have won two consecutive matches in the past fortnight after three early defeats, Wakefield are seeking to avoid a fourth straight loss, a far cry from the start of the season, when the Wildcats were riding high at the top of the Super League after two rounds.
“We’re working on being sharper than in recent weeks,” said the Wakefield coach, James Webster. “We created a lot of chances last week but our completion rate just isn’t good enough.
“We’ve been good in parts and scratchy in others. We need to put teams under pressure, and if we don’t do that we won’t beat Huddersfield, that’s for sure. We’re killing ourselves; we had enough chances to win games against Salford and St Helens, and we ultimately lost.”
The omens are not good for Wakefield. Huddersfield represent a major bogey side, having won their past four meetings. With injuries biting hard in the Wakefield camp – their assistant coach, Lee Gilmour, has started training to shore up the depleted forwards – Webster knows his team have to be much better if they are to overcome Huddersfield.
They could give debuts to Jordan Hand and George Griffin, who signed on loan from St Helens and Salford respectively to provide a much-needed boost to Webster’s squad depth.
“We’ve struggled against them in recent years and the last few times we played them we’ve been smoked by them,” Webster said. “They’re a big side all over the park, and it’s something we’ll have to be good at dealing with. We’re hoping to be better in that area this week.”
The other Super League match on Sunday also pits sides close together in the Super League standings. Widnes will be seeking a fourth straight victory against a Hull Kingston Rovers side who are steadily improving. They have won two of their last three matches, including a thumping 50-20 home victory against Catalans Dragons last weekend in which they scored nine tries.
