Wakefield's remarkable success isn't just on the rugby pitch — it's in the community

Moments like this, where your local team gets the chance to bring home silverware, live long in the memory. You find yourself reminiscing about hugging a stranger in the stands, and walking up to Belle Vue in an army of familiar shirts.

That is what makes sport so special. In those moments, you truly know you are part of a community. But crucially, community isn’t made in those moments; it is only revealed.

Building it takes time, patience, and people who believe in it even when the results aren’t going our way.

Take Trinity. For us, playing at the Theatre of Dreams on Saturday is itself a true achievement. Just three years ago we were relegated, and the Grand Final felt far away.

But with support from Wakefield Council, the inspired ownership and investment of Matt Ellis, and the backing of the community, the team steadied itself and has risen rapidly.

Saturday wouldn’t have been possible without that patience and belief. Even when it was struggling on the pitch and its finances were weaker, the community never gave up on Trinity, and Trinity never gave up on the community.

It continued reaching out into the area to bring opportunities and life chances to children, and to introduce children to the best version of rugby. As austerity stripped away so many of the services that had supported young people, Trinity and rugby league clubs across the North remained.

I’ve seen it first-hand. One of my first jobs was working for Wakefield Trinity Community Foundation, teaching dance and PE to kids across the M62 corridor.

We went into schools and took children on multi-week programmes that culminated in them seeing a game at Belle Vue. Watching them wince at big hits and stand on their tiptoes to see when we neared the line, you could tell they’d become fans for life.

I’ll never forget, as part of one of the Sport England-funded programmes, when we took some of those children down to Wembley for the Challenge Cup. For most, it was the first time they had been to London. For some, it was their first time outside of Wakefield.

Their faces lit up at the new experiences and opportunities in front of them. For those kids, those moments of inspiration Trinity was able to provide weren’t just on the pitch, it was in their classrooms and on trains down to London.

This is all the more crucial now in an age of smartphones and social media, in which it is too easy to write off a generation rather than do the hard, unglamorous work to nurture one.  

Rugby League can help play that role. It can teach young people about teamwork and discipline. More importantly, though, it shows children they are part of a community that cares about them enough for them to believe it is worth being a part of.

In truth, no matter what those who profit from division tell you, those people – the mentors, the volunteers, the players – are everywhere, doing the hard work of doing the small things to nurture their communities every day.

So when I’m in the stands in Old Trafford on Saturday, standing in a sea of Trinity shirts, I’ll be filled with hope because I’ll be with my community.

Jade Botterill is the Labour MP for Ossett and Denby Dale

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