{"id":316391,"date":"2025-12-15T00:33:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T00:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/316391\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T00:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T00:33:14","slug":"wakefield-trinity-owner-gives-recruitment-update-as-explains-xavier-vaa-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/316391\/","title":{"rendered":"Wakefield Trinity owner gives recruitment update as explains Xavier Va’a call"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Wakefield\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Wakefield Trinity owner Matt Ellis has confirmed the reason why his club pulled out of the race to sign Xavier Va\u2019a.<\/p>\n

Wakefield were heavily linked with a move for Va\u2019a, who has been released from his playing contract by NRL side Sydney Roosters ahead of a proposed switch to Super League. But Va\u2019a will not be making the move to West Yorkshire any time soon with the club opting not to go ahead with the deal.<\/p>\n

Various reports have since suggested that Va\u2019a is on his way to York Knights, with the forward set to join the newly promoted outfit.<\/p>\n

And, Ellis has now moved to explain why Wakefield opted not to go ahead with the deal, with his concussion history ultimately being decisive.<\/p>\n

However, while speaking with the Yorkshire Post,<\/a> Serious About Rugby League\u2019s sister site, Ellis admitted Wakefield are on the lookout for an experienced head to add to Daryl Powell\u2019s group.<\/p>\n

Matt Ellis gives Wakefield Trinity update<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got a bit of space left for one more signing to complete the squad \u2013 but we\u2019ve got to get it right,\u201d Ellis told the Yorkshire Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Va\u2019a one was difficult. We felt the lad had potential but he\u2019s one concussion away from a 12-week stint off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst he\u2019s a good prospect and there was still a consideration to take a punt on it, we\u2019ve only got one place left and realistically he isn\u2019t going to go through a season without a concussion. It was too much of a risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to add someone who takes us forward rather than just filling out the squad. If an experienced player comes up, like Joe Ofahengaue who signed for Leigh in the early part of the season, that would be the ideal signing because we\u2019ve got a lot of young players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wakefield<\/a> have made seven signings ahead of the start of the new Super League season with Tyson Smoothy and Jazz Tevaga being the most high profile pair. Tray Lolesio, Jack Sinfield, Will Tate, Jordan Williams and Kian McGann have also joined the club as Powell\u2019s side strive to build on their play-off finish of 2025.<\/p>\n

Check out the latest episode of The Serious About Rugby League Show on our YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wakefield Trinity owner Matt Ellis has confirmed the reason why his club pulled out of the race to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-316391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}