'Very tough test': Wakefield Trinity boss Mark Applegarth braced for Featherstone Rovers challenge

Trinity have enjoyed a positive first pre-season under Applegarth, beating Leeds Rhinos at Headingley on Boxing Day before making it two from two against Halifax Panthers a fortnight ago.

Wakefield will step up their preparations for the new season when ambitious Featherstone – under the leadership of Sean Long and Leon Pryce – visit Belle Vue fresh from nilling Hull KR.

“I thought they were excellent," said Applegarth.

“You can see Sean and Leon have done a cracking job. They look very threatening with ball in hand, especially the back five with their link-up play.

“We are expecting a very tough test. I think they will be favourites for the Championship this year so we are looking forward to it. It’s just what you need in a pre-season friendly.

“The main thing is everyone gets what they need from it and we get through as injury free as we can.”

Wakefield are three weeks out from their Super League opener against Catalans Dragons on home soil.

Applegarth is hoping to see another improved performance after stepping up the intensity in recent weeks.

“I thought we needed to do quite a bit after the Boxing Day game," he added.

“There were quite a few holes in our game that we knew were there because we hadn’t covered them in full detail.

“We’ve been doing a lot of team-on-team stuff since Boxing Day, which I thought we saw against Halifax.

“We’ve just been trying to polish that, make that more refined and ensure our execution is on point and we are more disciplined on our transitions. That’s what we’ll be looking at on Sunday.”

Featherstone have little over a week to wait for their opening league game, a trip to Keighley Cougars on February 6.

Long has been encouraged by how quickly his new charges have picked up the system changes.

"That's what I've been most pleased about," said Long, whose side beat Castleford Tigers in their first friendly.

"I haven't mentioned results or who we're playing – I didn't even do any homework on them – I just wanted to look at us and whether what we've been doing in training is working.

"Defence-wise, edge-wise, attack-wise and the 'takes no talent' stuff, I wanted to see all that.

"We've had two decent wins but that's gone. Nobody will remember a friendly if you don't do anything in the season."