Wakefield Trinity Ladies RL head coach, Liam Harnell, spoke to the media ahead of Sunday’s Challenge Cup clash against local rivals Featherstone Rovers.

We’ve had two weeks to prepare – how is the squad looking ahead of Sunday’s clash with Featherstone?

We have been a little lighter on numbers the last couple of weeks due to a few injuries in the squad. We have had to call upon our depth and get a few players up to speed on playing different positions. However, this isn’t an issue, we have full confidence in them to do a good job against Featherstone on Sunday.

Do we have any fresh injury concerns or is there any players returning for this weekend’s fixture?

Unfortunately, we do, we have Gayatri [Gambhir] out with a head knock playing on duel registration with Leeds University last weekend. Libby [Priestley] is out with what looks like an elbow injury from the Castleford game and possibly a couple more out with niggles pending fitness tests on Friday.  However, we may be gaining Millen [Downs] and Steph [Spence-Hirst] back from injury, who would be in contention to play pending being signed off by our physio.

A win in our opening game – how have you found the mood of the camp over the last two weeks?

Team morale is great, we have a group of players with a willingness to be successful and improve each week. The win against Castleford has just added fuel to the fire.

Moving onto this weekend’s game – how will the ladies be able to build from the victory over Castleford?

We sit down and discuss our statistics from the previous weekend at our first mid-week session. The players receive the stats beforehand and come to training prepared to talk about them. We are aware of where we need to improve and that comes from within the group so we’re all on the same page. It’s up to the girls now on Sunday to put their hard work into practice.

Featherstone are a strong side – how much do you know about the Flat Cappers ahead of Sunday’s game?

From playing against them last year, they outmuscled us in the middle of the park. They had a much more experienced pack, who had plenty of going forward. I’m looking forward to Sunday because they won’t find success there against us this year.

A victory will cement our place in the quarter-final – is there any extra motivation needed?

None at all, if the players can’t get motivated to play a local derby and have a chance of going one further in the Challenge Cup. I’m not sure what will.