St Helens v Wakefield Trinity: We're going to go for it says Willie Poching

Trinity have yet to win this year while Saints - aiming for a fourth successive Betfred Super League title - have a 100 per cent record.

But Poching pledged: “You can’t go in fearing them, you’ve got to go in excited and give yourself the best opportunity, especially when they are firing on all cylinders as they are.”

After losing by four points to Hull in round one, Trinity halved that deficit in last Saturday’s defeat at 2021 league leaders Catalans Dragons.

That was despite missing some key players, including their top three half-backs and Poching felt the performance in Perpignan was “heartening”.

He said: “To go there any time is a tough proposition, especially with a lot of senior blokes missing and a lot of injuries.

“We gave them too much of a start, but once we settled into the game we started to grow and grow.

“We defended really well and we took a lot of positives out of the game, while disappointed to come away without the result.”

Jacob Miller, Kelepi Tanginoa and David Fifita could return for Trinity and Lewis Murphy and Thomas Minns are both in contention for their debut, against an unchanged Saints squad.

Minns began his career at Leeds Rhinos and also played in the top-flight for London Broncos and Hull KR.

Following a drugs ban, after testing positive for cocaine, he played for Featherstone Rovers last year, but a broken leg kept him out of their 1895 Cup final triumph at Wembley.

He joined Trinity in pre-season after a brief spell with Newcastle Thunder and Poching said: “It’s a bit of a redemption story for Thomas.

“He has had a couple of battles that he has been open about and he is doing a great job for mental health on the back of the lessons he has learned.

“He has kept fighting, he has come back to the game and has an opportunity to return to Super League, which would be a massive turnaround for him.”

St Helens: from Welsby, Makinson, Hopoate, Percival, Lomax, Dodd, Walmsley, Roby, Lees, Mata’utia, Batchelor, Knowles, Lussick, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Sironen, Paasi, Amor, Wingfield, Simm, Davies, Hurrell.

Wakefield Trinity: from Jowitt, Johnstone, Lineham, Miller, Battye, Arona, Ashurst, Tanginoa, Pitts, Crowther, Whitbread, Batchelor, Kay, Walker, Aydin, Bowes, Murphy, Shaw, Hall, Minns, Fifita.

Referee: Aaron Moore (Wigan).

Kick-off: Friday, 8pm.

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