Sheffield Eagles' Kai Morgan relishing clash against hometown club Halifax
Sheffield Eagles are aiming for their sixth straight win when they take on Halifaz on Sunday
Sheffield Eagles half-back Kai Morgan is relishing the prospect of facing his hometown club Halifax this weekend as the Eagles look to extend their winning run to six matches in the Betfred Championship.
The Eagles have hit a rich vein of form in recent weeks, and Morgan admits the squad is feeling confident ahead of Sunday's clash.
“Yeah, we’re feeling good ahead of Sunday. Obviously, we’ve had a good few games now and we’ve won five in a row, so this week will be interesting.
“Halifax are a good team. They didn’t play last week, but they had a good win the week before at Dewsbury, so they’re back playing well again.
“It’s going to be tough, but hopefully we can make it six wins in a row this week.”
The fixture will have added significance for Morgan, who was born in Halifax, but he insists he will treat the game like any other despite the rivalry it creates within his family.
“This week is obviously a bit different for me with them being my hometown club. There’s a bit of rivalry in my family, but I’ll just take Sunday as a normal game.
“We’ll keep preparing like we have over the last five weeks, and that’s resulted in us playing well.”
The Eagles' recent run has been built on a combination of defensive resilience and an improving attacking game, with Morgan highlighting the work of the team's forwards as a key factor behind their success.
“As a group, we’ve wanted to try and start games well, but it hasn’t worked as well as we thought it would.
“I think when we just knuckle down and work as a team, we’ve started to finally click with the ball.
“That’s come off some good defence in recent games. I think our middles have been massive over the last few weeks, keeping the other team in their own yardage, and we’ve also got the experience of Jordan (Abdull) and Greg (Eden) playing alongside us and playing off the back of that.
“That’s allowed Jordan and Greg to work off the back of the platform the forwards have given us, and I think we’ve really started to click.”
Morgan has also developed a strong partnership with experienced half-back Jordan Abdull, while Eden has provided another attacking threat from the back. Having them alongside him has allowed Morgan to enter a period of good form himself, which has seen him score four tries in his last three outings.
“It’s taken me a few weeks to get used to playing with Jordan, but I really enjoy it.
“He allows me to have a bit of freedom, whilst he does the hard stuff well, allowing me to move off him a bit more.
“I’ve really enjoyed playing alongside him, but then you’ve also got Greg coming out of the back, and I think he’s really started to play well in recent games and have a massive influence on the way that we want to play.
“So yeah, I’m really enjoying it.”
Despite Halifax sitting 19th in the Championship following a points deduction, Morgan believes their league position does not accurately reflect the quality within the squad.
The Panthers have won 11 games this season and head into Sunday's fixture after an impressive 36-18 victory over Dewsbury in their last outing.
“Halifax are a tough team. I do think the league table doesn’t show where they should really be.
“They’ve obviously had their troubles throughout the year, but they’ve got a great team and a good coach there. They’re a hardworking team.
“We need to be on our game this weekend. We know it’s not going to be easy, but if we can go in 100 per cent and play the way we have done over these past few weeks, we should be alright.
“But we do know that they’re not going to come half-hearted on Sunday.”