Sheffield Eagles appoint Ian Hardman as assistant coach
Ian Hardman is back working with Ryan Sheridan at Sheffield Eagles
Sheffield Eagles have recently announced the appointment of Ian Hardman as their new assistant coach in advance of the 2027 Betfred Championship campaign.
He joins new head coach Ryan Sheridan’s backroom staff ahead of next year, along with new appointments Jamie Bell and Adam Milner, with them all bringing unique coaching and playing experience from their own past careers in rugby league.
Hardman was most recently with Keighley Cougars as their head coach throughout the 2026 campaign, after being appointed back in February of this year. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach at Featherstone Rovers.
Throughout a long and illustrious career playing rugby, he managed 350 appearances across stints with St Helens, Hull KR, Widnes Vikings and Featherstone Rovers, with the latter being his most prolific, achieving 288 appearances and 131 tries for Featherstone across 11 seasons.
Speaking on his reunion with Ryan Sheridan, and what both of them will be bringing to the club for the 2027 campaign, Hardman stated, “I was fortunate enough to be coached by Ryan earlier on in my career at Featherstone, and it was some of the most enjoyable times of my playing career.
“I have had some positive chats with Ryan since, and I am excited about what the vision of the club and this season is. I can’t wait to get on board and get stuck in with some hard work.”
He added, “We are very big on the detail; we are very big on the small parts of the game. The effort sides of it that we need to get right will evolve in our partnership as time goes on, but we have a consistent thought process of what is needed to achieve early and how to go about it. I am excited to get on board.
“As a coach myself, I am pretty calm and consistent with what I do, and I think that’s important, but that needs to be underpinned by work ethic, and that’s something that’s been emphasised massively.”