Wakefield Trinity v Leeds Rhinos: ‘We’ll fix things up and get it right,’ says returning Mason Caton-Brown

However, there is no doubting that Mason Caton-Brown will be delighted to step out at Wakefield Trinity’s old Belle Vue home again this afternoon.

The winger lines up against Leeds Rhinos hoping to get at least one West Yorkshire derby victory over the Easter period having made his ‘second’ debut for Trinity during Thursday’s 
28-26 loss at Castleford Tigers.

Caton-Brown was prolific during his first stint with Wakefield, scoring 26 tries in 27 appearances during two seasons before moving to Toronto for the Super 8s last August.

He was always highly-thought of by head coach Chris Chester but, put quite simply, three into two never goes.

Trinity were spoilt for wingers with Tom Johnstone, who would go on and earn Dream Team and England selection shortly after Caton-Brown’s departure, and the ever-reliable Grand Final winner Ben Jones-Bishop.

However, Johnstone was ruled out for this season following a knee reconstruction last month and with centre Bill Tupou also facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Chester urgently needed reinforcements.

Former Salford Red Devils star Caton-Brown was a perfect fit and he certainly looked like he had never been away when scoring twice against Castleford, also having a third try chalked off.

“It was bitter-sweet,” he said.

“It was good to be back playing, but we didn’t get the win.

“We let ourselves down in the first half, but showed what we can do in the second.

“We’ll fix up the problems from the first half and get it right against Leeds.

“We thought we had it in the last five at Castleford, but just couldn’t execute those last little plays.

“We are still confident going into this game and we’ll try and get a good performance and the two points.

“I really like it at Wakefield; the players and the staff. I really enjoy it, there’s a good bond between everyone and it is good to be back.

“I thought I’d be struggling fitness-wise, but I wasn’t too bad.

“There are things I need to fix up, but I’ll do that in training this week.”

Depleted Wakefield, who have slipped to fifth with their first defeat in four games, fell 22-0 down against Castleford but almost staged a remarkable recovery.

They realise they cannot start as poorly again against Leeds who pulled off the bottom after beating Huddersfield Giants 38-18 on Good Friday.

Caton-Brown – who has signed until the end of the season – is confident about the potential of Chester’s side.

“Watching the boys, they have had a really good run,” said the 25-year-old.

“We just need to fix up that start and then we will blow teams away, I think.

“(But) we can’t go into Monday over-confident; we’ll just go out and play our best rugby.”

Caton-Brown is set to face Tom Briscoe, the former England winger who is hoping Leeds can now plot together some form of their own after a dire start to the season.

That victory over Huddersfield was just a third win of the campaign and they were utterly out-played when Trinity beat them 35-18 at Headingley at the start of March.

They have still yet to pick-up back-to-back league wins this term, something they hope to remedy at Belle Vue.

With Hull KR also visiting on Sunday, Briscoe admitted: “The position we are in now, we need to rack up a few wins to get us away from bottom spot.

“We’ve two days to recover and then we’ve got to go again into what will be a tough game against Wakefield at their place, on the back of them losing like they did last week.

“It is a crucial period. There’s a lot of points up for grabs and if we can rack up some wins that’ll get us back up heading to where we want to be.

“Hopefully, we’ll put in another performance (like Friday) and grind out three wins.”

Rhinos raced into a 30-0 interval lead despite seeing former Hull FC star Briscoe sin-binned in the first half and they also showed further resolve to withstand a Giants fightback, Nathaniel Peteru yellow-carded late on.

“The first half was probably our best performance this season,” said the 29-year-old.

“We dug in deep defensively and when we went down to 12 men everyone dug in and managed to get through that period.

“That was very pleasing and I was very proud of everyone, especially in the hot weather. That took a toll on both teams, so to get through it and get the two points was the main thing.

“Our game was built on defence and that’s ultimately what got us the win.”

Rhinos’ star centre Konrad Hurrell came off with a hamstring injury against Huddersfield but he has been named in an unchanged 19-man squad.

Youngsters Callum McLelland and Owen Trout are waiting in the wings should the Tonga international not make it.

Wakefield are missing 10 injured players and could give a debut to youngster Jack Croft.

Rookie winger Lee Kershaw, 20, has also come in with Joe Arundel and Matty Ashurst the latest injured at Castleford.