Arundel: Trinity looking to close gap on Tigers

Chris Chester’s side picked up a fifth win of the season when easing past Widnes Vikings 30-4 on Friday.

That victory took them up to fifth ahead of their Good Friday derby at fierce rivals Castleford.

Trinity centre Joe Arundel, who helped them finish eighth last term, said: “We’re definitely happy with how we’ve started.

“We had a chat in the dressing room afterwards and it’s about not looking down now but up.

“It’s about catching teams at the top. There’s not much difference – we’re only four points behind Cas so if we pick up two against them this week things are looking very good.”

If Wakefield can inflict their rivals’ first home defeat of the season it would be a real statement of their intent.

Arundel, who started his career at Wheldon Road before moving to Hull FC, admitted: “It’ll be tough.

“I’m from Cas, live in Cas, used to play at Cas... I love playing there. It’ll be good to get back and try pick up a win. We know they’re a dangerous side but we want to try challenge them as no one really has this year.

“Salford did and they beat them. Hopefully we can do that and be real competitive.”

Trinity certainly have a decent chance if they defend like they did against Widnes conceding just one try in the 20th minute and then keeping their opponents scoreless for the next hour.

Arundel, 25, continued: “It was a good performance backing up from the Catalans win and the performance we put in there.

“We knew it could be a potential banana skin and we knew we’d have to turn up with the right attitude to win.

“We’ve worked really hard on our defence. The stats last year showed we conceded in our 10m whenever teams got in there.

“So we’ve worked really hard in there in pre-season, tightening things up and Grixy (ex-Huddersfield Giants full-back Scott Grix) is a big help;

“He sorts the numbers out and you can tell with his experience how he shapes things up in the defensive line.”