'˜Busted up' Sheffield Eagles need fit players back in the line up

Sheffield Eagles director Mark Aston was disappointed with his side's lack of competitiveness after being thumped by in-form Leigh Centurions.

Eagles leaked 50 points in the first-half alone as defensive fragility gifted Leigh an unassailable lead, and despite a second-half improvement, Aston’s side could not stop the Centurions passing 70 points.

With Eagles down on numbers following a number of key performers missing out through illness and injury, Leigh seized their opportunity leaving Aston concerned with a lack of competitive edge.

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“I’m disappointed. That’s an understatement because we let 72 points in, and again I am not sure how many of those type of scorelines I have been involved in,” Aston said.

“We know that we are busted up and we haven’t got the likes of Matty James, Josh Toole and Menzie Yere, plus we were missing some of the guys from St Helens. It was always going to be a tough gig against a team that is playing well. You still have to compete though and I thought that in the first-half we let ourselves down.

“There were people not carrying out their responsibilities in that first-half because you have to put your bodies in front of people to stop them, at times we had people turning their backs on them. We know what predicament that we are in.

“We have been down to 17 players for the last two games. They were going over the line unopposed.”

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On the positive front, Aston was able to hand a long-awaited debut to full-back Corey Makelim, whilst there was also a debut try for youngster Blake Broadbent.

Aston knows that the mini-break next weekend will give him the chance to get players back.

“We are hopeful now of getting the likes of Jake Spedding, Josh Toole, Cory Aston and Matty James back.”