Image source, SWPix.com Image caption, Wigan have won all three encounters with Wakefield in league and cup this season ByMatt NewsumBBC Sport Rugby League journalist Published 8 hours ago If Wigan Warriors are the grizzled old hands coming into Saturday's Super League play-off semi-final, their opponents Wakefield Trinity are the fresh, new blood hoping to make a big statement.
Trinity were a Championship side as recently as 2024 but their overhaul and subsequent promotion back to the top flight has reinvigorated them, making the play-offs in back-to-back years, and they are now just 80 minutes from the Grand Final for the first time in the competition's history.
Their opponents, meanwhile, are serial winners, having already regained the Challenge Cup and League Leaders' Shield they surrendered in 2025.
It makes for an intriguing contest, and the match will be shown live on BBC Two and iPlayer from 17:15 BST on Saturday.
Wigan Warriors v Wakefield Trinity Super League play-off semi-final Saturday, 26 September 17:30 BST Watch on iPlayer Watch live on BBC Two, iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app and listen on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra Wounded in 2025, hungry in 2026 Figure caption, Wigan win 22nd Challenge Cup title after beating Hull KR Hull KR's smashing of what seemed a glass ceiling in Super League last season was felt more keenly in Wigan than anywhere else, given the treble triumph of the season before was brushed aside by Willie Peters' team.
From the get-go in 2026, Wigan have had an intensity about them, that not even injuries to key players and a couple of mid-season wobbles could truly stifle.
The Warriors' last defeat came when a young, inexperienced side, filling in for rested stars before the Challenge Cup final, went down heavily at Hull KR back in May.
Just a week later, the cup was won and the subsequent 15 league games since have also ended in victory for Wigan.
There is no more powerful ammunition for players like Harry Smith than the disappointment of last season's empty haul.
"We're really positive about where we're at," Smith told BBC Radio Manchester.
"We took a lot of learnings last year, not taking away any silverware and it's given us a lot of motivation.
"It's about us honing in on what we do really well, what wins us games, we've used that a lot this year and now's the time to put it to the test in the big games." Trinity rebuilt, now for the next step Image source, SWPix.com Image caption, Tyson Smoothy has been a key figure for Wakefield from hooker, scoring in the eliminator win over Leigh There was only one name in the frame for owner Matt Ellis once he had completed his Wakefield takeover back in late 2023.
Daryl Powell's experience at Warrington failed to match the achievements he had built up at Leeds, Featherstone and, most importantly, Castleford - where he brought a League Leaders' Shield plus Grand Final and Challenge Cup final appearances to the Wheldon Road faithful.
But Powell was tempted back to coaching by the opportunity at Belle Vue and it has been a magical marriage since, with the play-offs achieved in the first year back in the top tier, backed up by reaching the semi-finals this term with victory over Leigh.
Tyson Smoothy swapped the NRL Grand Final for the northern hemisphere after signing for Trinity from Brisbane Broncos, but his whistlestop tour will end this season after he signed for new franchise Perth Bears.
Yet the 27-year-old has seen enough to realise just how far the team has come and how significant further success would be to a club building a similar buzz to their 1950s and 1960s heyday.
"You look at the crowd on Friday just gone, how much it means to them just to make finals in general," Smoothy told BBC Radio Leeds.
"To be able to go to Old Trafford and a Grand Final would be massive for the club, but we're not looking too far ahead.
"We touched on earlier in the year that a similar thing happened last year when I left Broncos and won a Grand Final, hopefully I can do it again and it would be a nice way to finish." Wigan have form edge but Trinity feel 'inner confidence' The two sides have already met in knockout rugby league this season, with the home side seeing off Wakefield en route to their Challenge Cup success.
While Wigan have boxed things off results-wise against Wakefield, the manner of their opponents' rise has not gone unnoticed at Robin Park.
"They've been superb as a club how they've built on and off the field, the recruitment is smart," Warriors head coach Matt Peet said.
"The style of play has a lot to it, big powerful athletes and detailed attacking shape.
There's a lot for us to contend with." For his Wakefield counterpart Powell, his side giving the best account of themselves is the most important factor, not being overawed by the sense of history and occasion.
"You just want the boys to go and play the game as they see it, it's important we don't get carried away with how important it is," he added.
"We've given ourselves an opportunity, but we're up against a team who are viewed as the best team in the competition.
