No pressure on us, says Agar

Wakefield head coach Richard Agar says they can go in to the play-offs full of confidence and with no pressure.

The Wildcats are the form team in Super League, having won their last seven matches, and they travel to face champions Leeds at Headingley in a do-or-die play-off clash on Saturday.

Agar told the club’s official website: “There’s no better side for getting to Grand Finals.

“They’re the masters of it and they know how to get the job done so going to their place will be huge challenge for us.  But there’s no pressure on us so we can go there and throw our very best football at them.  We’ll go with some confidence because seven wins undoubtedly gives us some confidence.”

Wakefield’s record-breaking run of wins included a 38-18 victory over the Rhinos in Round 22, while they scored 40 points in defeat at Headingley back in June, going down 44-40.

Agar added: “We can go there in the right frame of mind and knowing that we’ve had a couple of really good games against them already this year.

“We’ve scored forty points at Headingley once already this year, albeit we didn’t win, but we’ve shown we can give them a game on our day.”

The Wildcats’ place in the top eight was ensured by Bradford’s defeat at Catalan on Saturday afternoon, only the third time they have reached the play-offs in 14 seasons in the top flight.

Wakefield, who ended the regular season with a 42-34 win over Salford at Leigh Sports Village on Saturday, previously reached the play-offs in 2004 and 2009.

In 2004, on their play-off debut, they beat Hull 28-18 at the KC Stadium, before going down 18-14 to Wigan in the elimination semi-final.

On their last appearance, under the stewardship of John Kear in 2009, they were beaten 25-16 by Catalan in the first round of the play-offs at Belle Vue.