Rinaldi left Catalans for Harlequins in 2006

Wakefield Wildcats have signed former French international hooker Julien Rinaldi on a month's loan.

Rinaldi, 30, who is player-coach at Villeneuve, will make his debut against former club Catalans Dragons in Saturday's Super League clash.

"It will be difficult for him to slot straight in but he's experienced and he's played a lot of top-flight rugby league," said coach John Kear.

"He's a good player and someone we had considered at the start of the season."

Wakefield have won just one of their last eight matches to slip out of the Super League top eight and Kear admitted their 48-6 home defeat by Wigan on Sunday forced him to consider bringing in reinforcements.

"After the disappointment of last week, we've taken some prompt action and got someone over who we feel will offer something very positive in a crucial department," said Kear.

"It's been apparent that we've had a lot of adjustments with our pivots and perhaps it hasn't worked.

"We provisionally inquired about him last week and the performance last week made it more urgent because we didn't look as if we had any real direction out on the field.

"We were playing players out of position so we felt, with the balance of the squad, something had to be done."

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