Sheffield Eagles gear up for 'real deal' game in 1895 Cup tie at local rivals Doncaster

The two South Yorkshire sides will battle it out on Sunday afternoon at the Eco-Power Stadium, knowing victory for the home side over the Eagles will all but secure their place in the quarter finals of the competition following the Dons’ 4-40 win over Midlands Hurricanes last weekend.

Mark Aston’s side still need to play the Hurricanes, which is set to take place in a fortnight, but Glover knows how important it is for the Eagles to get something out of Sunday’s game against their local rivals to start their cup campaign strongly.

“I wouldn’t really class this weekend’s game as a test, we very much see this game as the real deal now and that’s the mindset we need to have,” said Glover.

“We know it’s going to be a big game against Doncaster on Sunday, it’s essentially a knock-out game as we know if we don’t win, then we might not get out of the group and into the quarter finals.

The Dons had an impressive end to 2023 as they secured promotion back to the Betfred Championship, via the League One play-offs.

They’ve recruited well during the off-season and brought in some notable new signings which include the likes of Reece Lyne (Wakefield Trinity), Suaia Matagi (Castleford Tigers), Pauli Pauli (York Knights) and Luke Briscoe and Craig Hall (Featherstone Rovers).

Richard Horne’s men have started 2024 well too, running Hull FC close in a friendly, narrowly losing 42-24, before going on to put a comfortable 40-4 win on the board over Midlands in their first game in the group stages of the competition last weekend.

“I’m really looking forward to getting out there on Sunday and getting into the game,” said Glover.

“I know a couple of the lads at Doncaster and I that they’ve recruited well recently with some of the new lads that they’ve brought in.

“They’ll still be full of momentum following promotion last season too, so I’m expecting a good game between us and them.”

The 30-year-old returned to the club for a second spell on loan last season from York Knights, having joined the North Yorkshire outfit from the Eagles in 2022.

He was over the moon to be able to make a permanent return to Sheffield in November last year ahead of this season, stating how much of a straight-forward decision it was for him to return, especially given his strong relationship with Eagles head coach Mark Aston.

“To return to Sheffield was a straight-forward decision for me,” said Glover.

“I spent a few years at York which I enjoyed, but I’ve always enjoyed being here, the boys are great, and they make it a great environment to be within.

“I’ve had a good relationship with Tubbs (Aston) for a while now and when the opportunity to come back and play under him again came around, it was a decision I felt that I couldn’t turn down.”

Having had their first run out of the new season last weekend against Hull KR in a pre-season friendly, a game in which the Eagles won 24-26, Glover says there was plenty of positives to take out their performance against the Super League club which he hopes they can take into this weekend’s fixture against Doncaster.

“Pre-season has gone well and it was great to get back out there last weekend in Hull and have a run out with the boys.

“I thought that we started really well in attack, and I thought we really had something about us within the first 10 minutes with how we started.

“Defensively as well, I thought we was good in spells. Even though we coughed up the ball a bit, I felt that we restricted ourselves doing that, and when we did it was around 10-metres out from their own try-line, so I felt that we did really well at times with our game management.

“First 20 minutes I felt that as a side we was definitely on the front foot and if we had carried on, we could have maybe got thirty points or so on the board.

“Credit to Hull, they stuck at it and came back into the game and gave us a good test in our first run out.”