Bradford Bulls stood in the way of Wakefield Trinity and their continued march back to Super League on the back of an unbeaten season as Daryl Powell’s side made the short trip to Odsal for a round fifteen showdown between top and fourth.

The visitors were, of course, the favourites to pick up another two points and Bradford were given a twelve-point start on the handicap coupon with the bookies unable to see anything other than another Wakefield victory.

Wakefield won both the early season league encounter and defeated Bradford at the semi-final stage of the 1895 trophy to secure their game at Wembley.

While Barrow Raiders are currently sitting in eleventh place in the Championship, they are only one point away from being in the top half of the table and only two away from the play-off positions, their current league location belying some excellent performances in 2024 which has meant some narrow losses.

But the likelihood was that this would be a game that would not help the home side improve on their situation as they welcomed the side who many had already crowned champions and promoted back to Super League before a single ball was kicked in this season’s competition, the high-flying Wakefield Trinity who remain unbeaten through twelve league outings.

The home side were given a massive twenty-two-point start on the handicap coupon; the points already being waved goodbye as they set off for West Yorkshire.

It was a foregone conclusion that Wakefield Trinity were going to lift the 1895 Trophy as the curtain came down on an exciting afternoon at Wembley as the final game saw them face a brave Sheffield Eagles who are having an excellent league season.

Wakefield were 1/12 to lift the trophy but you could get 6/1 on the Eagles, a one-sided game if there ever was one, and when the sides met five weeks ago in the league the West Yorkshire side were 36-10 winners.

It was going to take grit and determination for the Eagles to get anything out of this game and liftthe Trophy for a second time in six years, but under the coaching of Mark Aston they would give everything that they had in the quest for the win.

Top placed Wakefield Trinity made the short trip to Mount Pleasant to take on the Batley Bulldogs who started the round in tenth place with just a single win to their name after four games in the 2024 season.

A good win for the Bulldogs could see them into the top half of the table and kick start their season but the bookies were strongly leaning towards a win for Trinity and had given the home side a massive thirty-two points start on the coupon.

The home crowd were full of hope, but low on expectation as the league’s big boys rolled into town on a sunny afternoon with the aim of preserving their perfect start to the season.

The magic of the Challenge Cup paired the favourites to win this season`s Championship, Wakefield Trinity, against the side who have flirted with promotion for the last couple of seasons but who are currently experiencing some financial difficulties, Featherstone Rovers, in a fifth-round tie to make the mouth water.

Wakefield were favourites with the bookies for the win with a ten-point handicap on the coupon, but Featherstone had home advantage on the notorious pitch at a vociferous and often hostile Post Office Road.

A sixth-round place in a hat full of Super League teams beckoned for the winner over the eighty minutes.

Round two of the group stages of the 1895 Trophy pitched a York RLFC Knights coming into the game on the back of a 114-10 win over Newcastle last week, against the recently relegated Wakefield Trinity who were taking part in their first competitive fixture of the season as they travelled to the LNER Community Stadium.

Wakefield, under new ownership and the coaching of the vastly experienced Daryl Powell, were expected to push aside all challengers in their quest for a return to Super League but at this early stage of the season there were plenty unknowns which Andrew Henderson’s York hoped to exploit.

This was the first meeting between the two sides in almost twenty-seven years, York victorious on that occasion by 13-10 at the Huntingdon Stadium.

Billed as the ‘relegation decider’ it was impossible to underestimate the importance of a round twenty-two clash between Wakefield Trinity and the Castleford Tigers with the loser being cut two points adrift at the bottom of the table.

The ‘Sold Out’ notices were up days before the game and Sky changed their planned fixture to cover the game for the interested thousands who could not get ground entry.

While it was by no means all over for the losers, the winner would certainly have an advantage going into the last five games and the home support were optimistic that their side could perform an incredible Houdini-like escapes, the bookies making Trinity the slight favourites with a two-point handicap on the coupon.

There is still a long way to go in Super League 2023 with most teams still having nine games to play while Huddersfield Giants still have eleven matches left including this evening’s visit to play the Catalans Dragons in the south of France.

But last nights golden point drop goal from Will Dagger threw a massive lifeline to Wakefield Trinity as they recorded their third win of the season, and their third win in their last four games as they show a massive turnaround in fortune.

With the Castleford Tigers losing to the Leigh Leopards last night the difference between the sides is now just two league points and it makes the game between the bottom two sides on the 20^th August looks like the most crucial game of the season.

Neither Wakefield Trinity nor Leeds Rhinos could improve their league position as a result of a win this afternoon at Belle Vue but for the home side it would be a first win of the season and reduce the arrears to the Tigers, for the visitors it would keep alive their hopes of a play-off spot and bring Hull KR’s seventh spot into focus.

Leeds were big favourites for the win with the bookies having given Trinity sixteen points start on the coupon but with a big partisan crowd expected, along with plenty making the short journey down the A650 to cheer on a Rhinos side who can´t decide whether they are brilliant or rubbish, and who display both traits in near equal measure.

2023 is proving a tense year for the teams propping up the table in Super League, particularly when Hull FC travelled to Wakefield to take on Trinity in front of the Sky cameras on Thursday night.

  The Black and Whites arrived looking for their third win on the trot, on the other hand they are the only team to concede more points than Wakefield in the eleven games played to date but the visitors were the firm favourites with the bookies ahead of kick-off.

Jake Clifford got the game under way for FC after a stand-out performance in last week's win over Wigan.

A win for the Wigan Warriors, over Wakefield Trinity at the DW Stadium, would see them go ahead of Warrington and to the top of the table on points difference, ahead of the international break which would see England in action against France next Saturday.

The question on the lips of the travelling Wakefield supporters was not whether their side would get their first win of the season but how many they would lose by and if they would even manage to register a point after suffering five nulls so far in a catastrophic start to their 2023 season.

Wigan were handicapped by thirty points on the coupon, not surprising as Wakefield have averaged just five points a game while leaking thirty through their paper-thin defences.

There was zero chance of a shock.

The two sides tipped pre-season by many as the two relegation prospects have had contrasting starts to the season and while both Wakefield Trinity and the Leigh Leopards will have identified this afternoon´s encounter as a key one for their season the Bookies strongly favoured that it would be the Leopards who would inflict further misery on the home side.

Wakefield are winless after the first eight rounds of Super League, and have failed to score a single point in half of their games so far in 2023.

The Leopards have beaten both Hull sides and claimed the famous scalp of Champions St Helens in their opening games and will count themselves as unlucky to have lost narrowly in three other outings, especially last week´s two-point loss to Salford.

Super League´s only pointless side, Wakefield Trinity, had an ominous looking trip to the AJ Bell Stadium to take on an in form Salford Red Devils in the final game of round five on Sunday afternoon.

The Red Devils were big favourites for the win, especially after running in sixty points against Hull FC last time out but would need a big points win to improve their league position.

Wakefield haven´t scored a single point in their last three outings and had been conceding at the rate of thirty-three points a game.

There could only be one winner.

As winter shook it´s angry fist at the north of England for the first time in 2023, the Rhinos had taken all necessary precautions to ensure that tonight´s match against bottom of the table Wakefield Trinity would be able to go ahead despite ample snow covering the side roads surrounding Headingley Stadium.

Wakefield came into the game still seeking their opening win of the new campaign while the Rhinos were looking to double up after their sensational last-gasp victory over World Club Champions St Helens in the last round at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

The bookies could see only one winner, giving Trinity a sixteen-point start on the coupon, but the Rhinos went into the game fully aware that they were massive underdogs last time out and still came away with the points.

Despite freezing temperatures overnight, the undersoil heating at Emerald Headingley ensured that the traditional Boxing Day game between the Leeds Rhinos and Wakefield Trinity was never in doubt and a crowd still stuffed with Christmas treats, and some nursing slightly sore heads, made their way into the ground.

Leeds’ squad included new signings Justin Sangare, Derrell Olpherts, and James McDonnell and whilst there is a welcome return from injury for Morgan Gannon and Tom Holroyd, who all missed the end of last season on the side-lines.

It was also a strong Wakefield side named by new coach Mike Applegarth with a good mix of senior players and those looking to break into the first team ahead of the 2023 season including two new signings, Renouf Atoni and Morgan Smith.

The Rhinos have won three quarters of the Boxing Day challenges against Wakefield, including last year when Leeds win by 34-6.

There was simply no option for Willie Poching´s Wakefield Trinity, they had to beat the Castleford Tigers in tonight’s round twenty-one game.

But Lee Radford also needed the win for his side who were looking to consolidate their position in the top six and pull further clear of the chasing pack.

The Tigers were strong favourites with the bookies, Wakefield getting a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon but sometimes surprises are borne out of desperation and the Trinity fans came into the game hoping that this might be one as they made the short journey to the Jungle looking for their first victory over the Tigers since 2015.

With Toulouse Olympique XIII going down in a close game with the Salford Red Devils on Saturday, Willie Poching´s Wakefield Trinity side had the ideal opportunity to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

The only snag was that they had to get a win against the most dominant side in Super League, defending Champions and Champions elect St Helens.

It was top against bottom.

Optimism was in short supply amongst the Wakefield supporters, and the bookies agreed as they gave the home side a fourteen-point start on the coupon, all expectations were that Trinity´s position at the bottom would continue and they would see a worsening of their points difference.

The sides took the field in miserable conditions as the rain fell.

Most opening games of the Magic Weekend are dour mid-table affairs, put on for a handful of spectators while those of clubs not involved make the most of the many hostelries which Newcastle has to offer.

But this season is an exception with the bottom two clubs in the competition being thrown together in a massive tussle for two points which could prove decisive at the end of the season and was guaranteed to get the neutrals into the stadium early.

A win for Trinity would put them six points clear of Toulouse in the relegation spot, the French side with a near impossible mountain to climb, but should Toulouse overcome the slight odds against them and get their fourth win of the season, then the gap between the two sides would be down to just two points and all to play for.

The bookies nor pundits could really split them, neither could their two encounters so far this season, the St James Park pitch was all set for a match of epic significance.

With two sides at opposite ends of the table, there was much to play for between Wakefield Trinity and Wigan Warriors with very different aspirations.

Wigan wanted the two points to get within two points of St Helens at the top of the table after they lost to the Dragons last night while Trinity were getting dragged closer to the relegation spot after Toulouse surprised Hull KR yesterday.

The bookies couldn´t see past a big Wigan win with Trinity getting a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon, mainly because they were walloped by the Salford Red Devils last time out in a humiliating 74-10 defeat.

Wigan were looking for a fifth consecutive win and most pundits believed that they wouldn´t have an issue.

Wakefield Trinity took on the Wolves as a bottom of the table dogfight took place on Sunday afternoon at Belle Vue with ninth against eleventh and the chance of all change with a home win by twenty-four points or more heralding a position switch to push the Wolves into eleventh spot.

Wakefield won the round six the game in Warrrington back in mid-March by 38-22, and a week later they knocked Warrington out of the Challenge Cup by a score line of 16-12, today they were looking for the treble.

The home side were given a four-point start on the coupon, the bookies struggling to pick a winner but favouring the Wolves based on league position.