Playoff focus drives Sheffield Eagles coach Craig Lingard ahead of Workington clash
Craig Lingard undertook a Q&A this week ahead of Sheffield Eagles facing Workington Town
In a live interview that was broadcast across Sheffield Eagles social media channels earlier this week, in which their supporters could propose some of their own questions towards the club, head coach Craig Lingard revealed some of the inner details about the Eagles and their playoff hopes, and how this Sunday’s fixture against Workington Town (1:30 pm KO) could be important in their last push of the campaign.
Last weekend’s clash against Salford ended in a victory for the Eagles, due to a strong try from Kai Morgan in the closing stages of the day. Discussing the Salford fixture, and praising the strong effort from both sides during it, Craig stated, “It was a big victory for us; we are playing a Salford team that might not be top of the table, but they have a lot of quality within their squad, and they are growing.
“There is no pressure on them at this moment in time; they started this season as a new team, and they have developed as the season has progressed. They are in a place now that they are probably the best version of themselves that they have been this year. With no pressure on them at all, that can be a dangerous animal to come against; they are full of confidence, and all of the pressure is on us.
“We have to handle situations like that, where we have the favourites tag on our head, so we have to cope with and understand that.
“Situations happen in games; the weather that we had this week was difficult to contend with, Greg (Eden) pulled out on the morning of the game, and we had a reshuffle around that.
“So there’s things that happen; we aren’t going to win every game that we play by 40 points, and there’s some games that might be a little bit scrappy. Every game is different, but you just have to try and win games when you aren’t playing particularly as well as you want to do.
“But as long as you come out of the other side with 2 points on the league ladder, then that’s all that matters.”
Commenting on their season as whole and the adversities that have came across their path, in this case, the injuries that have ravaged the squad for much of their campaign, Craig remarked, “They have gone through a lot this year as a group, we started this season off really well, I said at the start that it is going to take a lot of time for these connections to develop, and it was about 50% of a new squad coming together.
“They’re not going to gel straight away. I’m not sure how many games it was that we won at the start, but we were getting victories and learning about each other.
“Then we lost Jordan Lilley for the full season, we lost Matty Marsh for the full season, Connor Fitzsimmons has been out for 4 months, Joel Farrell has been out for a similar length, and Jack Bussey and Connor Bower were out for a number of weeks as well.
“Having to cope with that, and bring new people in, and build those combinations again, we are now in a position that we are starting to get a few bodies back. Jack Bussey has returned over the last couple of weeks, and he has certainly helped; we managed to bring in Greg Eden at fullback, which has brought with it a new dynamic for us. Jordan Abdull coming in has certainly helped too.
“The games that we played against London and Doncaster, I think we had 7 or 8 first team players out, and then we lost players during those games as well. In the London game, we lost 3 players to HIA, and then we lost Jordan Lilley in the first 15 minutes of the Doncaster game due to an ACL injury.
“You have got that whole reshuffle that you have got to contend with again; there are certain things that happen during the year that aren’t great, but you can not change that, and you have to just play the cards that you have been dealt.
“I think the way that the players have responded to that adversity has been class, and now we can see that the performances have been getting better and better, and hopefully now we can peak towards the playoffs at the end of the season.
“It doesn’t really matter how you play at the start of the season, it’s about playing well at the end of the season when you are into the knockout stages of your campaign.”
However, a few players have managed to make their way back into the Eagles’ squad in recent weeks, and by this Sunday’s match against Workington Town, there may be some returning faces to look out for. Craig added, “We aren’t shaping up too badly. We will have to have a check on Corey Johnson, who came back on. He has been struggling with a shoulder issue for a number of months now; he has been getting through games, but he had a little bit of a whack on the Sunday. So we will have a look at him on Friday night, and if we need to sit him down for a week or two, we will do.
“We have potentially got Connor Fitzsimmons coming back in, so we can move Harry Bowes back at the 9, which gives us space to bring someone else into the bench or starting lineup.
“We can just change it around a little, so that we have a bit more strength in our depth than we have had maybe a month ago.
“You are going to pick up niggles at this time of year; it’s just the nature of the game, and we have had it week in and week out, so it’s not something that is going to impact on us too much.
“It creates the opportunity for someone else to come in, and they can come in and play well and try and keep the shirt.”
With this weekend’s fixture against Workington Town comes a chance to continue their strong current home form and secure a third straight win at the MEPS Home of Football Stadium, which is something that Craig is ready for his side to build towards. He said, “Everyone wants to win as many games as they possibly can at home. I think for us, the more games that we can win, then we will get more confident playing there.
“Your home form is always massively important to any team, particularly with us moving into that new ground; the more games that we can win here, then the more comfortable and confident we will get playing there too.
“We have won our last two games at the new ground, so hopefully we can make it three out of three at the weekend.”
Workington Town have been going from strength to strength in the recent stages of the season, with a massive win against Hunslet last month, and a close effort against Oldham a couple of weeks prior; they will not be the easy opponents that people may have billed them as at the start of the season. Commending the strength of this weekend’s visitors, Craig remarked, “They have done a double over Hunslet, and it was only three games back that they came really close to a win against Oldham on their own ground.
“They have games in them; you predominantly expect Workington to be strong at home and struggle on their travels, just because of the Cumbria connection they have where they maybe do not get the victories on the road. But they have had some good performances away from home this season.
“Hopefully we can catch them being a little bit rusty having not played in a number of weeks; we know ourselves that when you have those gaps off, it can take you a couple of minutes to get back into the set-for-set mentality.
“I would imagine they have had a little bit of time off in the break that they have had, and they will come back in training and be in preparation for this weekend’s game.
“I think it’s really important for us that we start the game really strongly, and try to put them under a little bit of pressure. We have to not let them get comfortable and get into the game, because as I said, it can be difficult to get into the physicality of a game of rugby when you haven’t played for a couple of weeks.
“The focus for us is certainly going to be the first 10 or so minutes, to get out of the blocks and generate some pressure and tempo.”