Eagles Wheelchair team ready for Edinburgh challenge
Sheffield Eagles Wheelchair head across the border to face Edinburgh in the Betfred Wheelchair Super League
Sheffield Eagles Wheelchair head coach Greg Brown says his side are relishing the challenge of this weekend’s Betfred Wheelchair Super League clash against Edinburgh Giants.
The Eagles travel to the Scottish capital aiming to secure their third league victory of the season, having already recorded wins over Hull FC and Bradford Bulls.
Following last weekend’s trip to London Roosters, Sheffield face another lengthy away journey. However, Brown believes the squad is adapting well to the increased travel demands that come with an expanded Super League competition.
“Travelling down to London last weekend was a pretty good experience, one thing we knew this year with the expanded Super League would be that there would be more away games and more travelling within that,” said Brown.
“One of the things about travelling as a wheelchair team is that we have to carry a lot more kit with us to different venues, it’s not just a case of picking up your kit and boots, but it’s something logistical we’ve started to become more used to this year.”
Despite suffering a 72-24 defeat against London Roosters, Brown was encouraged by aspects of his side’s performance, particularly after they matched one of the league’s strongest teams during the opening stages of the contest.
He added, “The performance against London last week saw us hold our own against them for 25 minutes, the score was level at 6-6.
“We were playing a side who are there challenging for the title at the top of the league, so despite the game getting away from us in the end, we felt that it was a performance against them that everyone was satisfied with.”
Attention now turns to Edinburgh Giants, with Brown expecting a closely fought encounter as the Eagles look to strengthen their position in the Super League standings.
“Everyone is really excited about travelling up to Scotland this weekend, it’s definitely been one of those fixtures in the calendar that’s been in our minds for a while. Yeh, we’re looking forward to it really,” he said.
“It’s expected to be close this weekend, it’s certainly one of the games in Super League that you look at and think both Sheffield and Edinburgh could win, so we expect it to be a competitive game.
“We still are without Nash (Jennings) this weekend who’s injured, but we’re expecting him to make a return to action very soon.
“What we’ll look to do this week is maybe see if we can move some of the members from the reserves team onto the bench for the Super League clash.”
The match at Pleasance Sports Complex is scheduled to kick off at 2.30pm, following the reserves fixture between the two clubs, which begins two hours earlier.