Domic and Solomona form Trinity powerbase

Dave Hadfield talks to Wakefield's dynamic duo hoping to overturn the odds against Hull today.

Wakefield might be 150-1 outsiders to win the Grand Final, but they go to Hull for their first appearance in the play-offs tonight with the advantages of form, confidence and the most potent attacking combination of a back and a forward in Super League.

After Sid Domic signed for the club from Warrington last winter, he heard that Trinity were also planning to recruit David Solomona from Parramatta.

"I told our coach to make sure he played him on my side of the field, because I knew how he can open up defences with his handling skills," Domic recalled. Shane McNally obliged and the result has been 22 tries for Domic from left-centre, most of them from Solomona's passes, and 13 more from the second-rower.

"Sid always gives me a good shout and lets me know where he is. He runs great lines and he's always sniffing for a try," Solomona said.

The other voice he can sometimes hear is that of his coach, going "Jeez David" from the stand when he tries to force out an impossible ball. In general, though, the pony-tailed New Zealander has been given his head and the result has been a crop of tries for him and Domic, without which Trinity would be nowhere near the play-offs.

Both were named this week in Super League's Dream Team for the season - the first Wakefield players to win that accolade.

"We've struck up a good understanding," Solomona said with some understatement. "There's a bit of competition within the side as well. While we've been creating tries down the left-hand side, Jason Demetriou and Gareth Ellis have been doing damage on the right."

That a side more used to dour battles against relegation should have developed their own internal try-scoring contest shows how far Wakefield have come this year. The danger is that, somewhere in the back of their minds, the players might feel that they have already done enough. McNally is adamant that they still have their focus intact, as demonstrated by the unsentimental way they sent Castleford down last Saturday, in a game that meant little to Wakefield and in which they might have been expected to ease off.

Ellis says that playing in that highly-charged occasion at The Jungle will be valuable experience for tonight.

"The play-offs are unknown territory for most of us, but the atmosphere at Castleford could set us up for going to Hull," he said. "And playing in my first Test match last year was a similar experience and helped get me ready for this."

McNally has given Ben Jeffries and Semi Tadulala until this morning to show that they are fit after ankle and hamstring injuries respectively. If Jeffries is out, Jamie Rooney could make his first appearance for almost two months, after a knee injury.

Hull's injury problems are more deep-seated, with Jason Smith, Richard Horne and Paul King - arguably their three most important players - all out for the season. Even before that series of blows, their form had gone off the boil and their coach, Shaun McRae, admitted that "if Wakefield were favourites, it would be justified."

If Hull lose, it will be McRae's last match of a successful nine years in England, before he returns to Australia to coach South Sydney. It is not the way his players will want to send him off and that, plus the advantage of playing at the KC Stadium, could be enough to see them through.

Hull have made another raid on relegated Castleford to sign the second-rower, Jamie Thackray, on a one-year contract. Thackray has been unavailable since May with a broken arm and said: "I realise I have to prove that I have recovered from the injury."

Warrington have agreed a two-year deal with the Halifax utility player, Simon Grix, who was a member of the England Under-18 side that won in Australia last month.

Super League clubs have discussed a new fixture format for next season, to replace the current one in which teams finishing in the top six are penalised by playing other high-finishing sides in their extra games.

The Melbourne full-back, Billy Slater, has joined the St George-Illawarra stand-off, Trent Barrett, in being ruled out of Australia's squad for the Tri-Nations this autumn. Both players need surgery on injuries.